Chinese high-speed train creates new world record

By IB Times Staff Reporter | September 29, 2010 51 AM EDT


A new high-speed train linking Chinese cities Shanghai and Hangzhou has set a fresh world record for train speed at 416.6 kilometers an hour on its trial run on Tuesday, China Daily reported.

The train expects to cut the travel time by half to 40 minutes for covering a distance of 202 kilometers between the two cities at an average speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

The train service connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, is expected to start in late October, state broadcaster China Central Television said.

"The new record of 416.6 km per hour shows that China has achieved a new milestone in high-speed train technologies," Zhang Shuguang, deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Railways, was quoted as saying.

Liu Yulei, a China National Radio reporter who took the trial run, said she felt like she was flying when the train reached its peak speed.

China, which has currently 7,000-km of high-speed railway lines, the most of its kind in the world, is not appealing to passengers due to prohibitively priced ticket charges and the long journey time for non-direct trains.

A first-class train ticket to travel between the two cities is estimated to cost more than 100 yuan ($14.90), which is twice the existing fare, Jiefang Daily reported.

Travellers believe that the high-speed train between Shanghai and Hangzhou make take longer than the two-hour drive on road if the train stops at all the nine stations along the route, seven of which are newly built in suburban districts of Shanghai and some cities of Zhejiang.

A number of non-direct high-speed trains running between Shanghai and Hangzhou may stop at these stations, with the goal of furthering economic development in these areas, China Securities Journal reported.

The report quoted a clerk with Shanghai Railway Bureau who did not want to be named as saying that the trial run for the Shanghai-Hangzhou line is for technical research. The ticket price and detailed operation timetable cannot be released yet.

Further details about the train will be released one week before the official operation starts, he said.

Acquisition of Foreign Technology

Despite setting speed records on test tracks, the DJJ2, DJF2 and other domestically-produced high speed trains were insufficiently reliable for commercial operation.[8] The State Council turned to advanced technology abroad but made clear in directives that China's HSR expansion cannot only benefit foreign economies.[8] China's expansion must also be used to develop its own high-speed train building capacity through technology transfers. The State Council, MOR and state-owned train builders, the China North Car (CNC) and China South Car (CSC) used China's large market and competition among foreign train-makers to induce technology transfers,.

In 2003, the MOR was believed to favor Japan's Shinkansen technology, especially the 700 series, which was later exported to Taiwan.[8] The Japanese government touted the 40-year track record of the Shinkansen and offered favorable financing. A Japanese report envisioned a winner-take all scenario in which the winning technology provider would supply China's trains for over 8,000 km of high-speed rail.[9] However, Chinese netizens angry with Japan's World War II atrocities organized a web campaign to oppose the awarding of HSR contracts to Japanese companies. The protests gathered over a million signatures and politicized the issue.[10] The MOR delayed the decision, broadened the bidding and adopted a diversified approach to adopting foreign high-speed train technology.

In June 2004, the MOR solicited bids to make 200 high speed train sets that can run 200 km/h.[8] Alstom of France, Siemens of Germany, Bombardier Transportation based in Germany and a Japanese consortium led by Kawasaki all submitted bids. With the exception of Siemens which refused to lower its demand of RMB(¥) 350 million per train set and €390 million for the technology transfer, the other three were all awarded portions of the contract.[8] All had to adapt their HSR train-sets to China's own common standard and assemble units through local joint ventures (JV). Bombardier, through its JV in Qingdao with CSC's Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. (CSR Sifang), won an order for 40 eight-car train sets based on Bombardier's Regina design.[11] These trains, designated CRH1A, were delivered in 2006. Kawasaki won an order for 60 train sets based on its E2 Series Shinkansen for ¥9.3 billion.[12] Of the 60 train sets, three were directly delivered from Nagoya, Japan, six were kits assembled at Kawasaki's JV with CSR Sifang, and the remaining 51 were made in China using transferred technology with domestic and imported parts.[13] They are known as CRH2A. Alstom also won an order for 60 train sets based on the New Pendolino developed by Alstom-Ferroviaria in Italy. The order had a similar delivery structure with three shipped directly from Savigliano along with six kits assembled by CNR's Changchun Railway Vehicles, and the rest locally made with transferred technology and some imported parts.[14] Trains with Alstom technology carry the CRH5 designation.

The following year, Siemens reshuffled its bidding team, lowered prices, joined the bidding for 300 km/h trains and won a 60-train set order.[8] It supplied the technology for the CRH3, based on the Velaro design, to its JV with CNR's Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd.