China unveils railway sci-tech innovation plan for 2026-30

BEIJING -- China, which operates the world's largest high-speed rail network, has issued a railway science and technology innovation plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30).

This innovation plan outlines key tasks in basic research and frontier technologies, engineering construction, technical equipment, transport services, digital and intelligent railways, safety, and green and low-carbon development.

The plan, recently released by the National Railway Administration (NRA), proposes to basically establish, by 2030, a science and technology innovation system that leads railway modernization.

During the 2026-30 period, China plans to build about 30 new railway industry science and technology innovation bases under the NRA, achieve breakthroughs in no fewer than 100 key core technologies, and produce no less than 500 major scientific and technological achievements.

It will also plan no fewer than 20 typical application scenarios or demonstration projects in areas such as the 400 km/h high-speed train operating system.

Regarding technical equipment, the plan proposes to steadily and orderly advance research on 600 km/h high-speed maglev technology as well as testing and verification of key technologies for domestic production.

In the case of transport services, the plan will promote upgrading the official 12306 ticketing platform from a single ticket-buying service to whole-journey intelligent services, providing one-stop intermodal travel solutions that precisely match passengers' "personalized, differentiated and diversified" needs.

China will accelerate the building of large models, datasets and computing power infrastructure in the railway industry, and will establish a minimum of 20 high-quality industry datasets and more than 20 typical artificial intelligence application scenarios, according to the plan.

Concerning green and low-carbon development, the plan calls for promoting demonstration operation of low-emission and low-fuel-consumption diesel locomotives as well as locomotives and rolling stock with multi-source power such as battery and hydrogen, establishing and improving a carbon management system, and helping total railway carbon emissions peak by 2030.