World’s first driver less trains to be launched by China

Friday, January 4, 2019

China will introduce the world’s first driverless trains to run at speeds of up to 350kph on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway line.

The China Railway Corporation (CRC) in 2018 trailled the automatic operation bullet trains on a section of the Beijing-Shenyang line.  The bullet train passed all safety tests.

A researcher from China Academy of Railway Sciences said that the bullet train can automatically depart, operate between stations and adjust the train’s operation that would meet its precise timetable after a single button is pressed.

On the high-speed trains a driver is currently employed to perform the operations and it is expected that the automatic train operation (ATO) will be replacing the human drivers in China. Earlier the ATO was rolled out on tow intercity lines in the Pearl River Delta region and the trains run at maximum speed of 200kph.

In June 2017 the Beijing-Shanghai line the new Fuxing trains debuted which could travel up to 350 kph.

An attendant will be deployed on board for the first 10 years of the high-speed ATO trains on board to make sure that the journey is safe and after that the train will be totally driverless.

Sun Zhang, a railway expert and professor at Shanghai Tongji University said that  the automatic driving system will be greatly improving the safety of trains running on high-speed railways as compared to the human drivers who might face sudden health problems or may be disregard safety concerns.

For the 2022 Winter Olympic Games the Beijing-Zhangjiakou line also known as the Jing-Zhang line currently under construction to offer easy travel between Beijing and the Winter Olympic Village.

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