China HSR News And Information: Original Translation

[onebyone]

China Railway began construction on the 78.2km Beijing – Bazhou high-speed line, which will serve the city’s new international airport at Daxing, 46km south of the capital.

The line will include four new stations, including an underground station at the airport, and is expected to cost Yuan 27.4bn ($US 4billion), including Yuan 800m for rolling stock.

The Beijing – Daxing International Airport section will have a design speed of 250km/h, with the remainder of the line south to Bazhou being constructed for 350km/h operation.

Construction began on the new airport in December 2014 and the project is due to be completed in September 2019.

In 2016, China began operation on new maglev lines.

The Changsha Maglev is a medium-low speed magnetic levitation, or maglev line in Changsha, China. This is China’s second maglev line, after Shanghai Maglev, and the first domestically built maglev line that uses indigenous technology. The line stretches over 18.55 kilometers and runs between Changsha Huanghua International Airport, Langli station and the high-speed railway station Changsha South Railway Station. Its rolling stock is designed for a speed of up to 120 km/h, currently however it is running with a maximum speed of 100 km/h .

Construction started in May 2014, trial running in 26 December 2015, and finally start trial operations on 6 May 2016. Since the beginning of construction in May 2014, the project has received an estimated investment of 4.6 billion yuan ($749 million).

China has the world’s only commercial maglev high-speed train line in operation: The Shanghai Maglev Train, a turnkey Transrapid maglev demonstration line 30.5 km long. The trains have a top operational speed of 430 km/h and can reach a top non-commercial speed of 501 km/h. It opened for operations in March 2004, and transports passengers between Shanghai’s Longyang Road Metro Station and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. There have been numerous attempts to extend the line without success. A Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line was also initially discussed but later shelved in favor of conventional high-speed rail.

Two other Maglev lines, the Changsha Maglev and the Line S1 of Beijing, were designed for commercial operations with speeds lower than 120 km/h.

In October 2016 China’s CRRC Corp announce it was beginning research and development on a 600 km/h maglev train and would build a 5 km test track

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/05/more-high-speed-rail-and-maglev-lines-in-china.html

 

[AndrewJin]

Railway plan of 13th 5-year-plan in Guangdong Province

 

[cirr]

High-speed rail to link 80% of major Chinese cities by 2020: Official

By Li Yan (People's Daily Online) 13:26, May 26, 2017

China will increase the distance covered by its high-speed railway tracks, planning by 2020 to connect more than 80 percent of the country’s major cities by high-speed rail.

The country has earmarked over 15 trillion RMB ($2.2 trillion) to develop domestic transportation from 2016 to 2020, according to Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng at the 2017 China Civil Aviation Development Forum on May 25. Railways, highways and airports will almost fully cover Chinese cities with populations of over 200,000 people by 2020, Li disclosed. China's transportation network had reached 5 million kilometers by the end of 2016, with 22,000 kilometers of high-speed rail and 130,000 kilometers of expressways.

Li noted that certain weaknesses in facilities and technical management can be bolstered as the country carries out supply-side structural reform in its transportation industry.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0526/c90000-9220932.html

 

[AndrewJin]

High-speed rail to link 80% of major Chinese cities by 2020: Official

By Li Yan (People's Daily Online) 13:26, May 26, 2017

China will increase the distance covered by its high-speed railway tracks, planning by 2020 to connect more than 80 percent of the country’s major cities by high-speed rail.

The country has earmarked over 15 trillion RMB ($2.2 trillion) to develop domestic transportation from 2016 to 2020, according to Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng at the 2017 China Civil Aviation Development Forum on May 25. Railways, highways and airports will almost fully cover Chinese cities with populations of over 200,000 people by 2020, Li disclosed. China's transportation network had reached 5 million kilometers by the end of 2016, with 22,000 kilometers of high-speed rail and 130,000 kilometers of expressways.

Li noted that certain weaknesses in facilities and technical management can be bolstered as the country carries out supply-side structural reform in its transportation industry.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0526/c90000-9220932.html

Late this year many new HSRs will be inaugurated, many in Western China.

One century's railway dream in Three Gorge region
Sichuan-Wuhan railway

百年川汉铁路：
在中国“八横八纵”铁路网中，湖北宜昌到重庆这段由宜万铁路和渝利铁路组成。这段总长845千米的铁路看似并不起眼，却用了百年时间年方告建成。

从位于江汉平原边缘的湖北宜昌市继续向西，便进入了重峦叠嶂、被称为武陵山脉的长江三峡地区。民国以前，川渝地区的商旅出行大多依赖危险的长江水运，而修建一条贯通川汉两地的铁路便成为人们的梦想。对铁路建设情有独钟的孙中山先生在《建国方略》中提出两大宏伟构想，其中之一便是建设川汉铁路。

川汉铁路自1909年在詹天佑先生的主持下动工以来，这条铁路历经了晚清、北洋政府、国民政府、新中国四个时期，但因为旧中国的积贫积弱和工程艰巨，铁路工程时断时续，迟迟未能建成，川汉铁路也成为两省人民未能实现的夙愿。

2003年，宜万铁路开工。2008年，渝利铁路开工。铁路施工大军从江汉平原一路挺进大山深处。修建宜万铁路的难度在于沿途发达的岩溶地貌，被世界工程学专家公认为铁路建设的禁区。宜万铁路通过的隧道下方数米，往往是百米高的巨大溶洞，施工人员被迫在山体的溶洞内修建桥墩托住洞顶，承载溶洞顶部上方飞驶而过的列车重量。隧道开挖中频频遇到的暗河也给铁路建设方造成了巨大伤亡，工程人员不得不用水泵耗费数月时间排干暗河的积水，修筑导流渠将暗河引到其他方向。

由于地形恶劣，宜万铁路有部分车站被迫建造在洞中和桥上，桥梁和隧道占线路总长的比例达到了74%，被称为“世界铁路桥隧博物馆”；而渝利铁路蔡家沟大桥也凭借139米（约40层楼）的桥墩高度，成为了世界最高桥墩的双线铁路桥。

在正式开工之前，宜万铁路的技术标准历经了多次修改提高，最终标准定格在了双线175km/h，远高于最早预想的单线80km/h标准，而渝利铁路也达到了200km/h，使沪汉蓉快速通道成为可能。

2014年7月，宜万铁路和渝利铁路开通动车，沪汉蓉客运专线全线贯通。川汉两地百姓多年的梦想终于实现。

此时距离川汉铁路最初开工，已经过去了整整105年。

The Three Gorge section of Wuhan-Chengdu Railway started to construction in 1909, but was suspended due to technological difficulties. It was until 2003 that the project restarted. The 845 km railway is dubbed as the museum of railway bridges and tunnels with 74% length of tunnels or bridges, also considered the most difficult railway China has ever built. The highest speed is 200km/h (some sections at 175km/h), making this railway one section of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chongqing fast-speed corridor. In July 2014, bullet train services started operation between Chongqing/Chengdu and Yichang/Wuhan.

Now, a 350km/h Shanghai-Chengdu railway parallel to this corridor (roughly along Yangtze River) is in the agenda of the 13th 5-year-plan of railway infrastructure.

 

[AndrewJin]

Tired of HSR today?
Some slow train photos shot in Beijing!

Night train Z298
Baotou-Xiamen
2974km
29h32min
15 stops

Train Y518
Zhangjiakou-Shijiazhuang
751km
11h21min
16 stops

Freight trains

Countryside of Beijing
3 trains!
@anant_s

New-generation locomotives under tests on Beijing's Railway Academy Ring Experiment Railway

 

[anant_s]

reminds me of this scene

@Nilgiri

 

[Nilgiri]

Tired of HSR today?
Some slow train photos shot in Beijing!

Night train Z298
Baotou-Xiamen
2974km
29h32min
15 stops
View attachment 399911

Train Y518
Zhangjiakou-Shijiazhuang
751km
11h21min
16 stops
View attachment 399914

Freight trains
View attachment 399917 View attachment 399916

Countryside of Beijing
3 trains!
@anant_s
View attachment 399918

New-generation locomotives under tests on Beijing's Railway Academy Ring Experiment Railway
View attachment 399919 View attachment 399920 View attachment 399921

Andrew, can you tell me the history of double decker passenger cars in China? Thanks!

 

[TaiShang]

Railway rush to get there and back
By LUO WANGSHU | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-30

A total of 44.6 million rail trips are expected to be made during this year's Dragon Boat Festival holiday, which started on Saturday, according to China Railway Corp, the national rail operator. This would represent a 10.5 percent growth on the figure last year, the company said.

On Saturday, the first day of the holiday rush, 10.35 million journeys were made, an increase of 6.4 percent over last year.

On Sunday, 12.1 million trips were made, and China Railway Corp expects this to be the peak during this year's four-day break. It predicted more than 9 million rail trips would be made on Monday.

Stations in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Qingdao were among the most crowded this year, based on ticket sales, according to the company.

Nearly half of the trips have been on tracks managed by the railway bureaus in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Liu Sufang is a native of Hebei province and lives in Beijing. Liu, along with her 5-year-old son, took the bullet train from Beijing to Shijiazhuang, to visit her parents in Hebei on Saturday.

"I usually do not buy train tickets ahead of my trip when I visit my parents on a regular weekend, as there are always some tickets available. But during the holiday, I bought tickets a month earlier to secure seats in advance," she said, adding that tickets are hard to get during the holidays, even to Hebei province, which neighbors Beijing.

A man from Beijing, who was heading to Tianjin with his wife for a day trip on Sunday, said they planned to leave early in the morning and buy tickets at the train station.

"But all the tickets before noon were already gone," Zhang said. "We had to go to a shopping center near the station to kill time and then catch a train to Tianjin around noon."

The bullet train takes about half an hour from Beijing to Tianjin and there are trains less than 10 minutes apart. "I did not expect such a high demand for tickets," he said.

Local railway authorities added 447 additional trains on Sunday to cope with the high demand nationwide. For example, Shenyang railway bureau added special tourist trains between Dandong city and Changbai Mountain.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-05/30/content_29545306.htm

 

[AndrewJin]

Andrew, can you tell me the history of double decker passenger cars in China? Thanks!

Interesting topic.

Double-decker was very popular in China during 1990s-2000s.
It has 4 different maximum speeds, 120km/h, 140km/h 160km/h and 200km/h.
(interesting fact: all slow trains with A/C, that are 99% of slow trains, using the same pricing regimen, without consideration of highest speed).

200km/h double decker popular in the early 2000s

140-160km/h

Now, CRRC has stopped all double-decker car manufacturing except for export.
The current trend in China Railway is of course high-speed railways and high-speed-isation of slow trains.
A double-decker is no longer beneficial overall.
A double-decker does not mean 100% more passenger per car, in China, usually 30-50% more.
Slow trains in China are becoming increasingly unpopular, there is no such need for more double-decker.
A 16-car bullet train is powerful enough every 5-10min.
(Mind that France has old-generation double decker bullet trains at 300+km/h, but France uses traditional tracks unlike more fragile non-ballastic tracks. And new-generation TGVs are unexceptionally one-floor. All double-decker bullet trains are never more than 10 cars per each train, limited by the power car).

And it has huge negative impacts on tracks.
Double-decker is also not spacious, passengers always complain about the narrowness.

Double-decker sleeper trains (each decker 2 floors of bed), too heavy, can't be standard 16-cars, but half double-decker and half singer-decker.

A 16 car bullet train (In Europe, most bullet trains are no longer than 8-10 cars) is very powerful in terms of passenger capacity.

A metro-design intercity bullet train is even more powerful.
8 cars, 2000 passengers

Slow trains, especially seats on slow trains are losing huge markets in China.
Those with a distance less than 1000km are uncompetitive compared with bullet trains.
1000+km overnight trains still have markets, but they need to be more comfortable to compete in this high competitive market with plane, 200+km/h sleeper trains, 300km/h bullet trains.

Now, many subsidiaries of CRRC are testing their own upgraded slow trains, in conformity with general bullet train designs. There will be no difference in terms of comfort between slow trains and bullet trains in the future.

 

[AndrewJin]

reminds me of this scene
View attachment 399926

@Nilgiri

Beautiful.
Where is this line?
What is such design called in English?
We call it 展线 in Chinese, literally extension/development line.
The most famous one is on Qinghai-Tibet railway (phase one), now no longer in use, replaced by a tunnel.

 

[JSCh]

Kunming East Railway Station put into operation to streamline transportation
Xinhua| 2017-06-01 08:04:19|Editor: Hou Qiang



Photo taken on May 31, 2017 shows the Kunming East Railway Station in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. The Kunming East Railway Station, which is mainly used as a freight station, was put into operation on Wednesday. The operation of the railway station is expected to streamline the passenger and cargo railway transportation in Yunnan. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)

 

[anant_s]

Beautiful.
Where is this line?

US

What is such design called in English?
We call it 展线 in Chinese, literally extension/development line.
The most famous one is on Qinghai-Tibet railway (phase one), now no longer in use, replaced by a tunnel.

Not sure, but in rail engineering parlance, it is called re-alignment. usually it allows shorter and straighter path and improves upon speed.

Two such scenes in India
Datia Pass (North Central railways) (images IRFCA)

& Dankuni

 

[AndrewJin]

Beijing?
Yes, Beijing
30km from downtown Beijing

US


Not sure, but in rail engineering parlance, it is called re-alignment. usually it allows shorter and straighter path and improves upon speed.


Two such scenes in India
Datia Pass (North Central railways) (images IRFCA)
View attachment 400533 View attachment 400534 View attachment 400535

& Dankuni

Interesting...It could be better if there were 3 trains!

 

[Nilgiri]

Double-decker was very popular in China during 1990s-2000s.
It has 4 different maximum speeds, 120km/h, 140km/h 160km/h and 200km/h.
(interesting fact: all slow trains with A/C, that are 99% of slow trains, using the same pricing regimen, without consideration of highest speed).

Maybe China can look into their use for suburban rail system connecting large cities suburbs to centre etc (with metro/subway focused for downtown area only etc). I know France uses double decker in their RER system in Paris district, they provide high capacity thoroughfare like nothing else, and max speed is not real issue here given the frequency of stops.

@Vergennes

 

[TaiShang]

Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railway test run

​

A test bullet train running in a trial operation of the Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railway arrives at the Lanzhouxi Railway Station in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, June 2, 2017. The 401-km railway linking Baoji of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Lanzhou in neighboring Gansu Province started test runs of the whole line. [Photo/Xinhua]

​

A technician monitors the data on a test bullet train running in a trial operation of the Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railway, June 2, 2017. The 401-km railway linking Baoji of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Lanzhou in neighboring Gansu Province started test runs of the whole line. [Photo/Xinhua]

​

Staff member work on a test bullet train running in a trial operation of the Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railway, June 2, 2017. The 401-km railway linking Baoji of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Lanzhou in neighboring Gansu Province started test runs of the whole line. [Photo/Xinhua]

A conductor gets off a test bullet train in a trial operation of the Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railway at the Baojinan Railway Station in Baoji, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 2, 2017. The 401-km railway linking Baoji of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Lanzhou in neighboring Gansu Province started test runs of the whole line. [Photo/Xinhua]


http://china.org.cn/photos/2017-06/03/content_40957621_4.htm