Economy
China's fastrack to the high speed era
By Hou Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-17 17:00
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News that China is developing high speed trains with a maximum speed up to 500km/h may arouse the interests of frequent rail travelers in the country.
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 A high speed train is seen at Zhengzhou Railway Station, Henan Province. Picturen taken on February 6. [Xinhua] |
If you have ever taken a train during the so-called "Spring Festival travel rush", you will know clearly how important rail transportation is to the country and its people: Hundreds of millions of homesick students, migrant workers and those living outside their hometowns flock to railway stations around the country to board crowded trains!
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Now having the world's longest high speed rail network with over 3,300 km of service routes, China has been dazzling the world with its glorious achievements in this field.
Statistics from the Ministry of Railway shows that now some 10,000 km of rail tracks are capable of carrying trains traveling at speeds of at least 200 km/h while the country's total railway length is about 86,000 km.
Not only specially-built rails are needed for a high speed rail network, modern trains manufactured with cutting-edge technology are also indispensible as it is almost impossible for a traditional train to travel at a speed up to 200 km/h and above.
Professor Li Heping with China Academy of Railway Sciences confirmed the report about the development of 500km/h new high speed train with the China Daily Website.
He said the prototype train is being manufactured now and they hope it could make a trail run at a speed of over 400km/h before the end of this year. However, the professor also emphasized that the new car is just for scientific research rather than going into mass production.
Currently, there are four types of high speed trains in service in China, namely the CRH1, CRH2, CRH3 and CRH5, of which CRH2 and CRH3 could reach a maximum speed of 350km/h.
China introduced up-to-date foreign technology and manufactured the above four types of train by itself.
Apart from the already in service trains and the 500km/h one, two high speed train manufactories in the country, China CNR Corporation Limited and China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited, are both developing a new train with the maximum speed of up to 380km/h for the 1,318km-long on building Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway.
"Both the two manufacturers will launch prototype trains within this year and their maximum test speed must exceed 420km/h so as to leave an adequate safety margin," said Professor Huang Qiang also from China Academy of Railway Sciences.
He revealed that with a service life of 20 years, the new trains will have better aerodynamic performance and each train set has larger power.
