[Rufio]

China's bullet trains set speed records

AP
Published Oct 27 2010


Journalists taking pictures of the bullet trains of a new high-speed railway linking Shanghai with Hangzhou
Two bullet trains glided silently out of a gleaming new station on Tuesday to inaugurate China's latest high speed rail line, as officials boasted of setting world records using domestic technology. Many, but not all, of the trains plying the new railway between Shanghai's western suburb of Hongqiao and Hangzhou will travel the 200 km in 45 minutes, which is about half the time trains usually take to make the trip at their fastest speeds. The China-made CRH380 train has been clocked at almost 420 km per hour, a world speed record, though it will usually operate at a maximum speed of 350 kph.



A police officer standing guard by the bullet train of a new high-speed railway linking Shanghai with Hangzhou
China already has the world's longest high speed rail network. It aims to have 13,000 km of high speed rail in operation by 2012 and 16,000 kilometers by 2020. The efforts to develop China's own ultra high speed rail technology are a showcase project nearly on a par with the country's space programme in terms of national pride and importance.

Railway officials recently announced they were working on technology to boost speeds to over 500 kph. Railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said that all the technology, design and equipment of the CRH380 is China's own, though he acknowledged that the programme began in cooperation with Japan and several other countries.

"Beyond speeds of 250 kph it is all our own proprietary technology," Wang said. "Now other countries hope to cooperate with us." Chinese firms are vying for projects overseas, including in the US, which leads the world in freight railway technology but has almost no highspeed rail expertise.