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At the insistence of the German Federal Department for Re-search and Technology and the Department of Transportation the German Federal Railway (later German Rail) - for quite a long time together with various other companies - supervised between 1982 and 2008 the development and the testing of the German magnetic levitation system. For this purpose the "Versuchs- und Planungsgesellschaft fur Magnetbahnsysteme" (MVP) was created. The mission contained operations of the test facilities at the Emsland, proving and evaluab'on of the various test rides, studies for fields of application for the sys-tem in Germany or other countries, and preparatory work for a national implementation of the system. The paper presents an historical overview of the activities of this company in the area of conflict between the priorities of Federal Departments, industry and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2006 and 2011 the DB ProjektBau GmbH, Berlin, has modernized the railway line Berlin-Cottbus in two stages for a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Concrete sleepers with under sleeper pads from RAIL.ONE GmbH, Neumarkt, were largely used to achieve a good vibration protection, reduced ballast forces and longer life of the track. The under sleeper pads type SLN 1510 G DB were manufactured by Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH, München, from highly elasticated Sylodyn® polyurethane material. In the paper presented development and modernization of the line as well as the production process and the mounting of the sleepers with under sleeper pads are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]