Workers clean up after a ceremony in the factory of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co Ltd in Qingdao, Shandong Province on Friday. The company launched its first test train that can reach speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour. Photo: CFP
A test train designed to travel at speeds of more than 500 kilometers per hour was unveiled at the weekend.
The country's largest train manufacturer, China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Limited CSR (CSR), presented the test model in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
The six-car train is the newest in the CRH high-speed series. It has a maximum power of 22,800 kilowatts, more than twice as much as the 9,600 kilowatts power of the CRH380 trains currently in service on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, which held the record commercial operating speed of 350 kilometers per hour until maximum speeds were reduced to 300 kilometers per hour following the deadly Wenzhou high speed rail crash in July that killed 40 people, according to Xinhua.
Additional safety measures include plastic material reinforced with carbon fiber in train bodywork, which increased strength by 22.7 percent while also reducing weight.
However, some question whether China should introduce such high-speed trains after the Wenzhou crash.
Shen Zhiyun, a locomotive expert and academician with the Chinese academies of sciences and engineering, told Xinhua that testing the super-speed train would provide useful data for current high-speed railway operations.
Mao Baohua, a professor of traffic systems at Beijing Jiaotong University, said developing a super-speed train was not wrong given the hunger for innovation and faster communications in modern society.
"But the question is how to make this technology safer when for civil use," Mao said. "No one can guarantee a zero accident record, but we have to consider every safety aspect. And there's no need to put test models into production in haste since the bullet trains currently in operation are still being adjusted."
After the Wenzhou crash, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered thorough safety checks on all high-speed lines including those not yet completed and cut maximum speeds.