China succeeds in maglev train test
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-30 22:14
China on Sunday successfully tested a low-to-medium speed magnetic levitation
train, the first domestically developed one in the country, in Southwest China's
Sichuan Province.
A maglev train drives into a terminal station
in Shanghai March 14, 2006. A high-speed rail link between Beijing and
Shanghai and a maglev line between Shanghai and neighbouring Hangzhou have
been approved by the State Council, China's cabinet.
[Reuters] |
The test maglev train is 11.2 meters long, 2.6 meters wide and 3.3 meters
high. It ran steadily on a 425-meter-long experimental line in the provincial
capital of Chengdu.
"The successful test of the train shows that China has mastered the
technology of low-to medium-speed maglev trains," said Zhang Kunlun, deputy
director of the School of Electrical Engineering of the Southwest Jiaotong
University in Chengdu.
The maglev train is developed by a maglev research team of the university,
one of China's key engineering universities.
The cost of this maglev train is low, and is suitable for urban traffic,
Zhang said.
With a weight of 18 tons, the test train can hold 60 people. It can travel at
speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour, according to Zhang, also a maglev
expert with the Ministry of Science and Technology.
China is expected to build a 175-kilometer-long maglev railway this year
between Shanghai, the country's largest metropolis, and Hangzhou, a famous
tourist destination and capital of East China's Zhejiang
Province.
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