Self-developed maglev train rolls off CRRC assembly line

The first maglev train for the Qingyuan maglev tour line in South China's Guangdong Province rolled off the assembly line in Tangshan, North China's Hebei Province, on Friday, the train maker announced.

The train will be used on the Qingyuan line, which is China's first tourism-dedicated low-speed maglev line. Construction of the line started in December 2017.

The new train is part of the sixth-generation maglev train series developed by China Railway Construction Corporation Tangshan Co (CRRC Tangshan). The magnetic gauge is 1,860 millimeters and the design speed is 120 kilometers per hour, the company said on its official WeChat account on Friday.

According to chinanews.com, the maglev train is 100 percent independent in terms of innovation and intellectual property rights.

The train has a lightweight aluminum alloy body and adopts technologies such as self-traction and automatic driving to comprehensively improve the train's running speed, reliability and comfort, said Liu Yuefeng, the chief designer of the train.

"The train's traction capacity is 48 percent higher than that of the previous generation, and its suspension capacity is 8 percent higher. The maximum suspension force of the train is 35 tons," said Liu.

The fourth-generation maglev train produced by CRRC Tangshan has been in service on Beijing's S1 line for nearly five years and successfully served the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

The seventh-generation train has a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour and uses carbon fiber lightweight composite material, said CRRC Tangshan.

Founded in 1881, CRRC Tangshan is the cradle of China's rail transit industry and the first rail equipment enterprise in China to carry out the engineering and industrialization of maglev transportation technology.

Construction of the Qingyuan maglev tour line is planned in two phases, according to the project plan on the website of the Qingyuan municipal government.

The first 8.01-kilometer line has four stations, linking the Yinzhan station of the Guangzhou-Qingyuan Intercity Railway with the Chimelong Forest Resort in Qingyuan.

The second phase will expand the whole line to 38 kilometers, connecting to the South China Tiger Breeding and Reintroduction Training Center and Meilin Lake.