China unveils ‘world’s fastest train link’

BEIJING (AFP) – China on Friday unveiled what they see as the fastest in the world – a train that links the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan always with an average speed of 350 km (217 miles) per hour of charge.

The super-high speed reduces the 1069 km long trip to three hours of driving and reduce the current travel time by more than seven and a half, the official Xinhua news agency.

Work on the project began in 2005 as part of expansion plans of a high-speed network linking Guangzhou, finally, a business center in southern China near Hong Kong, with its capital Beijing will have, Xinhua News Agency.

“The train journey is 394.2 kilometers per hour, is the fastest train service in the world,” said Zhang Shuguang, head of traffic at the Ministry of Railways, under the news’ Xinhua.

Operational testing for the service began in December and the connection is officially in operation when the first train would leave the eastern city of Wuhan on Saturday.

In comparison, medium-high speed trains in Japan, 243 km / h, while in France was 277 kilometers per hour, said Xu Fangliang, Chief Engineer for the design of the relationship, if the Xinhua news agency.

Beijing has an ambitious development program to increase the national rail network from the current 86,000 kilometers 120,000 kilometers will, is the largest rail network outside the United States.

China produced its first high speed line in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – a service to the capital to the port city of Tianjin.

In September, authorities said they planned to build up to 42 high-speed lines in 2012 to a massive overhaul of the system, as part of efforts to promote economic growth during the global recession.

The network is based on technology developed in collaboration with foreign companies like Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.
Read More