New bullet trains to depart on Monday, linking up Beijing-Shanghai

A photo taken on June 25 shows the newly launched bullet train in Beijing (Photo/chinadaily.com.cn)

China will put two new bullet train models into operation on Monday on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

The CR400AF will depart from the Beijing South Railway Station at 11:05 a.m., traveling toward Shanghai, while the CR400BF will leave Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station bound for Beijing at the same time, according to China Railway Corp, the State-owned rail operator.

The line is the nation's busiest high-speed link, carrying on average some 505,000 passenger trips a day.

At a naming ceremony at a maintenance facility in Beijing's Daxing district on Sunday morning, Lu Dongfu, general manager of China Railway Corp, said the new trains would be called "Rejuvenation".

The word rejuvenation has been widely employed by the central leadership to refer to its goals of achieving the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". Prior to the new trains, all of the country's bullet trains carried the designation "Harmony".

The new trains were developed mainly based on China's railway standards and technologies and were designed to be better adapted to China's environment and rail transportation patterns, Lu said.

They will travel at a speed of about 350 kilometers per hour, though their maximum speed is 400 km/h, according to designers at the China Academy of Railway Sciences.

China's defunct railway ministry, which was replaced in part by China Railway Corp, launched the research and development for the Chinese-standard bullet trains in 2012 with engineers from 30 institutes and companies.

The trains now running on the country's high-speed rail network have been designed and built in accordance with various foreign standards.

This forces China Railway Corp to run a number of different support and maintenance programs for trains made to different specifications, keeping operating and support costs high. The lack of a Chinese-standard bullet train has also hampered the nation's efforts to export its rail technology and products.

Compared with in-service bullet trains, the new models feature longer service life－they can operate 30 years, while the existing ones can be used for 20 years. They also have streamlined designs that allow lower power consumption and more space for each passenger, said Zhang Bo, a designer from the China Academy of Railway Sciences.

He said the overall design and all of the key parts on the new bullet trains, such as traction, brake and control software, were developed solely by Chinese engineers.

He Huawu, chief engineer of China Railway Corp, said his company will gradually replace all in-service bullet trains with Chinese-standard types. "The move will greatly reduce our production, operational and maintenance costs, and will help us export our railway equipment, trains and technologies," he said.

Editor: Eric Wang