China to run world’s fastest train with speed of 400 kmph

China will launch the world’s fastest train in September which will shorten the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai by more than an hour, authorities said on Monday.

According to the China Railway Corporation, after several successful test runs, the train, called “Fuxing” (rejuvenation) will operate regularly from September 21 with an average speed of 350 kmph and a maximum speed of 400 kmph.

A total of seven pairs of trains will be launched that will make 14 return trips a day over a distance of 1,318 km separating the two cities.

The train will run about 50 kmph faster than the previous versions that ran at about 300 kmph.

This new, homegrown bullet train model, also includes a sophisticated monitoring system that can automatically slow down the train in case of emergencies or unusual conditions.

China has the longest railway network in the world, accounting for around 60 per cent of the global total.

China began running its first 350 km per hour high speed train between Beijing and Tianjin in August in 2008 and opened at least three more such high-speed lines nationwide in the following years. But it reduced the speed between 250 to 300 km per hour after a major accident in July 2011. Forty people were killed and over 190 injured when two high-speed trains travelling on the Yongtaiwen railway line collided on a viaduct in the suburbs of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province in July 2011. The Fuxing trains were unveiled in June and are capable to clock top speeds of 400 kmph.

China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network of over 22,000 kilometres, about 60 per cent of the world’s total. About one-third of China’s highspeed railways were designed to allow trains to run at a speed of 350 kmh, according to He Huawu of the China Academy of Engineering.

China has laid more than 12,400 miles of high-speed rail to date, with the intention of adding another 6,000 miles by 2020. According to the Associated Press, the country has spent $360 billion building the network of high-speed rail, creating the largest in the world. –IANS