World record train even faster
By Zhang Xuanchen and Dong Zhen |
December 4, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S high-speed train broke its own world record yesterday, reaching 486.1 kilometers per hour during a test run on the world's longest express train line between Shanghai and Beijing.
The China-made CRH-380A hit the mark on a 220-kilometer stretch of track between Zaozhuang City in Shandong Province and Bengbu City in Anhui Province, both in the east. The section forms part of the 1,318-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway due to open in 2012.
The bullet trains are expected to halve the current travel time from the capital to Shanghai to four hours.
The train's previous record of 416.6kph was set in September during a test run between Shanghai and Hangzhou. It marked a milestone in the country's effort to build the largest, fastest and technologically sophisticated nationwide high-speed passenger rail network in the world by 2020, the Ministry of Railways said.
"The CRH-380A is the world's fastest and most technologically advanced high-speed train," Zhang Shuguang, a deputy chief engineer with the ministry, told the Xinhua news agency.
It has a maximum speed of 380kph during regular operations and can keep a constant speed of 350kph.
So far, China has 7,055 kilometers of high-speed railway in service, longer than any other country, with trains running at 200 to 350kph between major provinces and municipalities.
China launched its first high-speed line linking Beijing with the neighboring port city of Tianjin during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Since then, more fast-train lines have been put into service: the Wuhan-Guangzhou line linking central and south China; the Zhengzhou-Xi'an line connecting central and western China; and the Shanghai-Nanjing line in the country's east.
The Shanghai-Hangzhou line opened in October, connecting Shanghai to the capital of neighboring Zhejiang Province.
The government is to spend 800 billion yuan (US$120 billion) to double the length of high-speed track in its bid to cut the travel time among almost all China's major cities to less than eight hours, increase traffic capacity and boost regional economic ties.
China will have a rail network of 110,000km by 2012, with 13,000km of it for high-speed trains, the ministry said.
However, alongside the ongoing expansion, concerns have been raised about the increased cost of travel.
Currently, ticket prices on Shanghai's high-speed links are around 50 percent more expensive than older trains, drawing criticism from some travelers, and especially those in lower-income groups.
By launching bullet trains on new lines, some express trains running on older track have been reduced or stopped, leading to fewer rail travel alternatives, some critics say. They have even coined a term, "high-speed-railized," in Chinese to mean that people have been left with no other choice but to use the more costly new trains.
At the opening of the Shanghai-Hangzhou line in October, the rail operators boasted that people in Hangzhou and Shanghai could now take the train to work in one city and return home to the other in time for dinner.
But critics asked just how many working class people could afford the 160 yuan return ticket each day.
The China-made CRH-380A hit the mark on a 220-kilometer stretch of track between Zaozhuang City in Shandong Province and Bengbu City in Anhui Province, both in the east. The section forms part of the 1,318-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway due to open in 2012.
The bullet trains are expected to halve the current travel time from the capital to Shanghai to four hours.
The train's previous record of 416.6kph was set in September during a test run between Shanghai and Hangzhou. It marked a milestone in the country's effort to build the largest, fastest and technologically sophisticated nationwide high-speed passenger rail network in the world by 2020, the Ministry of Railways said.
"The CRH-380A is the world's fastest and most technologically advanced high-speed train," Zhang Shuguang, a deputy chief engineer with the ministry, told the Xinhua news agency.
It has a maximum speed of 380kph during regular operations and can keep a constant speed of 350kph.
So far, China has 7,055 kilometers of high-speed railway in service, longer than any other country, with trains running at 200 to 350kph between major provinces and municipalities.
China launched its first high-speed line linking Beijing with the neighboring port city of Tianjin during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Since then, more fast-train lines have been put into service: the Wuhan-Guangzhou line linking central and south China; the Zhengzhou-Xi'an line connecting central and western China; and the Shanghai-Nanjing line in the country's east.
The Shanghai-Hangzhou line opened in October, connecting Shanghai to the capital of neighboring Zhejiang Province.
The government is to spend 800 billion yuan (US$120 billion) to double the length of high-speed track in its bid to cut the travel time among almost all China's major cities to less than eight hours, increase traffic capacity and boost regional economic ties.
China will have a rail network of 110,000km by 2012, with 13,000km of it for high-speed trains, the ministry said.
However, alongside the ongoing expansion, concerns have been raised about the increased cost of travel.
Currently, ticket prices on Shanghai's high-speed links are around 50 percent more expensive than older trains, drawing criticism from some travelers, and especially those in lower-income groups.
By launching bullet trains on new lines, some express trains running on older track have been reduced or stopped, leading to fewer rail travel alternatives, some critics say. They have even coined a term, "high-speed-railized," in Chinese to mean that people have been left with no other choice but to use the more costly new trains.
At the opening of the Shanghai-Hangzhou line in October, the rail operators boasted that people in Hangzhou and Shanghai could now take the train to work in one city and return home to the other in time for dinner.
But critics asked just how many working class people could afford the 160 yuan return ticket each day.
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