News About Advanced Train Technology

China introduces new maglev train

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Beijing (UPI) Jan 23, 2012 - A Chinese manufacturer has introduced a low-cost magnetically levitated (maglev) train it says is more environmentally friendly than conventional ones.

Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co. Ltd. says its three-carriage train is designed to run at a maximum speed of 60 mph and carry 600 passengers.

"It's ideal for mass transportation, as it is quiet and environmental-friendly. Its manufacturing cost is about 75 percent of a conventional light-rail train," Zhuzhou General Manager Xu Zongxiang told China's official Xinhua news agency.

The maglev train can make turns of 50-yard radius and can easily run in residential communities or on hilly slopes, he said.

"It's an ideal public transport option for Chinese cities and major tourist destinations," Xu said.

Liu Youmei of the Chinese Academy of Engineering said the new train is green, economical and safe.

"It can be used for public transport in populous areas and at scenic spots with fragile environments," he said.

Beijing is building a maglev route that will be operational next year, while Shanghai has the world's first commercial maglev system on a 19-mile route between the downtown business district and the city's Pudong airport.

Shanghai's German-made maglev went into operation in 2002.

China train maker says to raise $1.4 bn in funds

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Shanghai (AFP) Jan 12, 2012 - CSR Corp, whose state-owned parent made the bullet trains involved in July's deadly crash, said it will raise up to 9.0 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in a private placement of shares.

Money raised from the issue of around 1.96 billion A shares will be used to fund the development of new products and upgrade manufacturing, maintenance and after-sales services, CSR told the Hong Kong stock exchange late Wednesday.

The offer has been approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

CSR Corp is listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, but A shares are aimed at domestic investors and denominated in China's yuan currency.

The company's parent, CSR Group, will buy 6.0 billion yuan worth of the planned offering, according to a proposal released earlier by the firm.

The share issue comes amid reports that rail companies are struggling for funds in the wake of last year's train accident, which killed at least 40 people near China's eastern city of Wenzhou.

CSR officials bought back shares in August to help support the company's battered stock price, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

Shares of the company were up 0.22 percent at 4.51 yuan in Shanghai trading on Thursday.

In an accident report released last month, China said design flaws and poor management were to blame for the fatal high-speed rail crash, which sparked public fury.

The government said 54 people would be punished for the disaster.

Chinese New Year travellers overload ticket system

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Beijing (AFP) Jan 4, 2012 - A new online system designed to make it easier for people to buy train tickets home for the Lunar New Year is struggling to cope with huge demand from millions of travellers across China.

The week-long holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, is the world's biggest annual migration of people as more than 200 million board trains and buses across the vast nation to celebrate with their families.

The railway ministry had hoped the online booking system would make it easier for China's migrant workers, many of whom spend days queuing up at train stations, sometimes in freezing weather, to get a ticket.

Although the holiday officially begins on January 23, demand for tickets is high many weeks in advance. The festival travel season is expected to end on February 16.

Train tickets for the holiday went on sale Sunday, but many people have complained that website glitches have left them out of pocket and with no ticket -- if they were lucky enough to log on to the site.

"I paid 218 yuan ($34) for a ticket from Shanghai to Chengdu online. When I went to collect the ticket a railway official told me he could not find the sales record," Huang Siling told the Global Times.

Many travellers flooded social networking sites to vent their anger at spending hours trying to access the new system, only to find that tickets allocated for that day had already sold out.

"Three days on end rushing for a ticket. It's almost 10 o'clock and I still can't log on. What's going on?" one web user posted on weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

Officials have pledged to improve the website's design and increase the network bandwidth to handle the demand, as well as refund money to out-of-pocket travellers within 15 days, state media said.

But some travellers said they were very happy with the new system, which means they no longer have to leave their home to buy a ticket.

"This morning I bought a ticket from Beijing to Harbin while lying in bed. After three years of queuing overnight at the train station for tickets, this is a luxury for me," said Yuyebugui in a posting on weibo.

Argentina expands railroad network

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Buenos Aires (UPI) Jan 3, 2012 - Argentina is expanding its railroad network to cope with increasing demands for its growing export sector plus expectations of a boost in transit trade from landlocked Paraguay and regional commerce.

Swedish contractor Skanska is the latest international player in the expansion plans. Skanska said it will build a railway extension from the province of Neuquen to the Port of Bahia Blanca near Buenos Aires in a deal estimated at $134 million.

Neuquen city is an important agricultural center irrigated by the Limay and Neuquen rivers and a petrochemical industrial hub that receives oil extracted from different points of the province.

Bahia Blanca is an important trans-shipping and commercial center handling the large export trade of grain and wool from the southern area of the Buenos Aires province, oil from Neuquen province and fruit from the Rio Negro Valley.

Its group of sea ports is one of the most important in Argentina as the only ones that are naturally 33 feet deep, although the depth of the main channel is kept at 40 feet by regular maintenance.

Although Neuquen is served by existing rail, road and air networks, the construction of the new railroad network will facilitate economic growth in the region that lies halfway to the Chilean border, officials said.

An original railroad network in the country was built by the British-owned Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway company that initially built an extension to the Neuquen town in exchange for lands in order to populate the area.

Population in provincial capital Neuquen has been rising steadily as its energy sector grows and draws new investment from Argentine and international entrepreneurs.

Two Argentine companies, Chediak and Milicic, will be Skanska's partners in the joint venture with Potasio Rio Colorado S.A., a local affiliate of Brazilian mining company Vale. Skanska's share in the deal will be about one-third.

Argentina is one of 38 countries in which Vale operates. Skanska will be responsible for civil works including embankment, drainage and pavement on a 50-mile extension of the railway that also involves 29 bridges.

The project is to begin in February and will be completed in the first quarter of 2014, Skanska said.

About 600 workers will be involved once the project reaches its peak.

Skanska Latin America is one of the region's leading contractors. Its operations focus primarily on engineering, construction, operation and maintenance services for the international oil and gas, energy and mining industry.

In 2010, Skanska Latin America had about 10,000 employees and earned about $835 million.

China to punish 54 over fatal train crash

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Beijing (AFP) Dec 28, 2011 - China said Wednesday that 54 people would be punished for design flaws and poor management it blamed for a fatal July crash on the nation's flagship high-speed rail network that sparked public fury.

The highly critical statement from the State Council, or cabinet, said the railway ministry had mishandled the rescue and failed to address public concern after the disaster, which killed at least 40 people and wounded nearly 200.

The cabinet repeated earlier government findings that a July 23 lightning strike stalled one high-speed train near the eastern city of Wenzhou and caused signalling equipment to fail, allowing a second train to rear-end the first.

"The Ministry of Railways did not properly handle rescue efforts, did not issue information quickly, and failed to address public concerns in the proper fashion," the cabinet statement said.

"The China Railway Signal and Communication Corp, the main signalling equipment contractor, did not fulfil its full responsibility, which resulted in serious design flaws and security risks in the equipment it supplied.

"The relevant workers in the Shanghai Railway Department had little training in safety awareness, and after the accident happened, they did not carry out their duties properly or correctly."

The crash triggered a flood of criticism of the government and led authorities to freeze the rapid expansion of China's ambitious high-speed rail network, already the world's most extensive and held up by Beijing as a sign of rapid progress.

The crash, China's worst rail accident since 2008, also sparked accusations that the government had compromised safety in its rush to develop and raised questions over the consequences of corruption.

Users of the country's hugely popular microblogs demanded to know why the system failed to inform the driver of one train that the train in front had halted, and also questioned whether the death toll might be higher than authorities admitted.

Even China's official media weighed in, with the People's Daily newspaper -- the Communist Party's mouthpiece -- saying the country did not need "blood-soaked GDP".

The cabinet statement made no mention of the deaths or injuries in the accident or compensation for the victims but said the ministry of railways would be further investigating its officials.

China Central Television devoted several minutes to the cabinet findings, showing footage of Premier Wen Jiabao addressing the State Council, intercut with animated graphics of lightning striking the rail tracks.

The cabinet said the former railway minister Liu Zhijun and Zhang Shuguang, a former deputy chief engineer at the railway ministry, would be among those punished for the accident.

Liu was sacked in February over corruption charges, after he allegedly took more than 800 million yuan ($125 million) in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to the high-speed network.

Zhang, who was closely tied to Liu and involved in the high-speed rail's design, was suspended in March.

The cabinet recommended that all 54 railway officials singled out for punishment should be disciplined with demotions and the loss of their positions within the nation's ruling Communist Party.

The cabinet did not say what criminal charges, if any, would be pressed.

Those singled out for punishment were from the China Railway Signal and Communication Corp, the Design Institute of Signals and Communication, the railway ministry and the Shanghai Railway Department, the statement said.

Another man named as responsible was Ma Cheng, the deceased former CEO of the Signals & Communications Group.

Many online reactions to the cabinet statement were critical, with some expressing doubt whether the punishments would have much effect.

"The train accident results are incredible," wrote one microblogger on the Tencent online service. "A bunch of 'disciplinary actions', 'demerits' and 'removal from Party posts...' Is there any point of substance?"

China's high-speed rail system only opened to passengers in 2007, but grew at breakneck speed thanks to huge state funding and is already the largest in the world, with 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles) of track at the end of last year.

In December 2010, the railways ministry announced that a Chinese high-speed train had reached a speed of 486 kilometres per hour, smashing the world record for an unmodified train.

But earlier this year, cracks started to emerge.

China's state auditor in March said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan in funds meant for a flagship new Beijing-Shanghai link that launched just before the crash.

Authorities decided to limit speeds on the high-speed network to 300 kph following the allegations of widespread, high-level graft in the rail sector, with fears that safety had been compromised.

China unveils high-speed train despite safety woes

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Shanghai (AFP) Dec 27, 2011 - China has unveiled a prototype train capable of reaching speeds up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) an hour, state media said Tuesday, as the nation pushes ahead with high-speed rail despite a fatal crash.

China has built the world's largest high-speed rail system from scratch in less than a decade, but a collision between two high-speed trains in July that killed at least 40 people led it to suspend new projects.

The new experimental train was unveiled in the eastern province of Shandong at the weekend by state-owned train maker CSR Corp, the China Daily newspaper said.

The train, whose sleek design was inspired by an ancient Chinese sword, was built using plastic reinforced with carbon fibre and magnesium alloy to reduce weight and therefore increase speed, the report said.

There was no indication of when the six-car train would be put into commercial use.

China's bullet trains routinely travelled at around 300 kilometres an hour, but the government reduced speeds after the July accident, which involved trains made by CSR.

Initial reports suggested signalling problems were to blame for the crash, which sparked strong public criticism of China's government, but the results of an official investigation have not yet been released.

Separately, a new high-speed railway linking the capital of the southern province of Guangdong, Guangzhou, to Shenzhen city on the border with Hong Kong went into service Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

China plans to extend the route to Hong Kong by 2015 as part of the planned Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed line, it said.

The latest moves come despite China saying last week it will cut spending on its railways next year.

The railways ministry will invest 400 billion yuan ($63 billion) on rail infrastructure in 2012, down from an estimated 469 billion yuan this year and 700 billion yuan in 2010, state media said.

The cash-strapped ministry is burdened by debt after borrowing to finance railway projects and some banks have stopped lending it money.

China to cut railway spending in 2012: Xinhua

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Beijing (AFP) Dec 23, 2011 - China will cut spending on its railways next year, state media said Friday, after authorities borrowed heavily to fund the rapid expansion of the country's massive network.

The railways ministry will invest 400 billion yuan ($63 billion) on rail infrastructure in 2012, the official Xinhua news agency said, down from an estimated 469 billion yuan this year and 700 billion yuan in 2010.

The cash-strapped ministry is sinking under a mountain of debt after borrowing to finance railway projects and some banks have stopped lending it money, state media said previously.

Xinhua said last month that the ministry will receive 200 billion yuan in financial support to help fund projects, amid reports that more than 80 percent of projects currently being built are facing construction delays.

Many projects face a one-year delay in completion, previous reports said.

The railway ministry was 2.1 trillion yuan in debt at the end of June, bringing its debt-to-assets ratio to nearly 59 percent.

China has developed its vast transport network at breakneck speed, building the world's largest high-speed rail system from scratch in less than a decade.

But the government has been accused of overlooking safety in its rush to develop, most notably after the deadly July high-speed rail crash near Wenzhou city and a metro collision in Shanghai in September that injured nearly 300.

In the weeks following the July crash, the government announced a halt to new train projects.

The planned budget cuts come weeks before millions of Chinese board trains and buses to journey home for the Lunar New Year celebrations at the end of January, in the world's biggest annual human migration.

For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Madison WI (SPX) Dec 14, 2011 - Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Much of that impact boils down to simple efficiency, according to Erica Bickford, a graduate student in UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. For each ton they carry, long-distance trucks go about 150 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel.

Trains can move a ton more than 400 miles per gallon.

Shifting from road to rail 500 million tons of the freight passing through or to the Midwest would make a large dent in the carbon dioxide spilled into the air by the movement of goods.

"There's a 31 percent decrease in carbon dioxide produced by freight shipping in the region, and that's straight from emissions," says Bickford, who made a model of freight traffic in 10 Midwestern states from Kansas to Ohio that she will present today in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

"It's 21 million metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of what's produced by about 4 million cars."

But carbon dioxide mixes fairly evenly in the atmosphere, spreading its effects around the globe. Bickford's study accounts for weather patterns and the way particular pollutants are distributed to determine how long other products of diesel engines - like black carbon soot and the ozone ingredient and lung irritant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) - linger near their sources.

"The result is a much more thorough and local idea of the differences between truck and rail shipping," says Tracey Holloway, director of the Nelson Institute's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and Bickford's advisor. "If you're emitting CO2 in Indiana or India it has the same impact. But something like soot, that has local impact."

More rail traffic would mean more pollutants near the tracks, but relief near roads frequented by trucks - a tradeoff is unbalanced in favor of more densely populated areas.

"Black carbon and NO2 are harmful to everyone's health," Bickford says. "But because more people live near roads than railroad tracks, more people would benefit from the shifts in these pollutants."

As much as 16 percent less black carbon soot would linger near roads with heavy shipping traffic, according to Bickford's model, while the increase around rail corridors would be as high as 20 percent. Nitrogen dioxide would plummet by as much as 30 percent near roads, but rise by as much as 20 percent near railroad tracks.

Holloway's research group is already working on further modeling to explore connected changes in the number of asthma and heart disease cases.

The effects of greater rail use would be particularly noticeable in the middle of the country, according to Bickford.

"We're sort of a freight crossroads in the Midwest," says Bickford, whose work was funded by the National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education at UW-Madison. "International shipping comes into the country on the coasts and then passes through our backyard on the way to its destination."

The study limited hypothetical changes in shipping to trips of more than 400 miles to ensure a cost savings for shippers, and to cargo - such as automobiles and non-perishable food - that could handle the slower trip in railcars. The 500 million tons Bickford selected for travel by rail represent about 5 percent of U.S. truck freight by weight.

"These aren't pie-in-the-sky figures," Holloway says. "They are reasonable and achievable."

And they come with non-pollution benefits, like reduced traffic congestion, wear on roads and demand for diesel fuel.

"Truck freight travels on publically-funded roads, rail traffic on privately-built tracks," Bickford says. "But these benefits could be an impetus for public investment in rail infrastructure."

For Midwesterners, more boxcars mean cleaner air

Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:31 AEST

Madison IN (SPX) Dec 12, 2011 - Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Much of that impact boils down to simple efficiency, according to Erica Bickford, a graduate student in UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

For each ton they carry, long-distance trucks go about 150 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. Trains can move a ton more than 400 miles per gallon.

Shifting from road to rail 500 million tons of the freight passing through or to the Midwest would make a large dent in the carbon dioxide spilled into the air by the movement of goods.

"There's a 31 percent decrease in carbon dioxide produced by freight shipping in the region, and that's straight from emissions," says Bickford, who made a model of freight traffic in 10 Midwestern states from Kansas to Ohio that she presented in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union last week.