Three new members of China's Fuxing high-speed bullet train fleet debuted on Monday at a test track of China Railway Corp in Beijing's Chaoyang district, with some expected to put into service as early as in January next year, showcasing China's latest innovation in homegrown railway technology and intelligent operations.
The three new members of Fuxing family are CR400AF-B, a 17-coach bullet train with a designed speed of 350 kilometers (km) an hour, CR300BF, an eight-carriege model with a maximum speed of 250 km per hour, and CR200J, centrally powered electric multiple units (EMUs) with a maximum speed of 160 km an hour.
The grey-red 17-coach bullet train is an extended version of the 16-coach trains that are currently running between Beijing and Shanghai. The 439.9-meter-long train could carry 1,282 passengers, which is 7.5 percent larger than the current capacity of the 16-coach Fuxing bullet trains. To further raise China railway's transportation capacity, the new model will be put into service on rail lines between Beijing and Shanghai in January 2019.
The green CR200J, which could accommodate the maintenance equipment that are currently used by regular rail lines, will also be put into service in January. Zhang Bo, a research fellow at China Academy of Railway Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the model will replace some regular trains running in China's railway network in the future to improve the rail service's efficiency.
The grey-yellow CR300BF, which could carry 613 passengers at the maximum capacity, is expected to gain certificate to be put into use in June 2019, according to Zhang.
"Compared with the previous generation of Fuxing bullet train, the new members use a higher percentage of homegrown railway technology while also improving significantly in terms of intelligent operation and communication," Zhang said, noting that the new Fuxing bullet train models "have reached advanced levels" in terms of technology available in the global market.
