Photo: web

 

The world's first high-speed maglev transportation system running at a speed of 600 kilometers per hour will make its public debut in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, on Tuesday.  

As the fastest ground vehicle available so far, the system, self-developed by China, is a cutting-edge scientific and technological achievement in the field of rail transit in the world, said China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Qingdao Sifang Co., LTD., an industrialization base for manufacturing high-speed trains in China. 

Photo taken on May 23, 2019 shows China's first high-speed maglev train testing prototype in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. China on Thursday rolled off the production line a prototype magnetic-levitation train with a designed top speed of 600 km per hour in the eastern city of Qingdao.(Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

The high speed maglev train will be suspended, driven and guided without contact between the train and the track by means of electromagnetic force, with its resistance only

coming from the air, said Liang Jianying, deputy general manager and chief engineer of CRRC Sifang.  

As a new mode of high-speed traffic, the train is safe, reliable and has low noise pollution, small vibration, large passenger capacity and needs less maintenance, he said, saying that it can fill the speed gap between high-speed rail, whose maximum operating speed is 350 km/h, and aircraft, whose cruising speed is 800 to 900 km/h. 

The maglev train is the fastest mode of transportation within the 1,500 km range in terms of actual travel time. A journey from Beijing to Shanghai takes about 2 hours by air, 5.5 hours by high-speed rail, and will only be about 2.5 hours by high-speed maglev train, taking journey preparation time into consideration.

Lu Huapu, director of the Transportation Research Institute of Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Monday that the development of the high-speed transportation system helps realize China's goal of creating "3-hour transportation circles" between major cities, which was put forward in a 2019 guideline.

The 600 km/h maglev transportation system will also help consolidate China's leading position in high-speed railway technology, Lu said, adding that China, along with Germany, Japan, the UK, Canada and the US, are the main countries that are engaged in the development of maglev trains.

Although the maglev prototype train is about to be rolled off the production line, there is no track line for the 600 km/h high speed maglev train in China yet. 

But some cities are planning to build high-speed maglev lines, and have entered the stage of research and demonstration, including Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Line and Chengdu-Chongqing Maglev Line.