Beijing: China has mastered braking technology to stop the world’s fastest trains that travel a maximum speed of 500 kilometres per hour, a railway scientist said.
The eddy-current braking testing system has been completed and put into use, Li Heping, a senior researcher of China Academy of Railway Sciences, told China’s (Xinhua) News Agency.
Eddy-current braking, a high-end technology for rail transportation, is used in high-speed trains travelling at 200 kmph or above. The technology is under development in countries that have high-speed railways.
Chinese researchers can make dynamic simulation to brake high-speed trains at a maximum speed of 500 kmph, and launch testing research of eddy-current braking in all speeds and situations, he said.
Li noted that China is internationally advanced in overall technologies of high-speed trains.
In December last year, the high-speed line linking Beijing and Guangzhou — the world’s longest — went into service, bringing China’s total high-speed rail network in operation to a length of more than 9,300km.
China plans to have 18,000km of high-speed lines in operation by 2015. Tests show China’s new-generation high-speed trains can run as fast as 486.1 kmph, a record high in the world.
Li also disclosed China will put dual-powered high-speed trains into operation next year, with self-owned intellectual properties. The trains, driven by electric force and cells, will mainly be used for inter-city routes traveling 200-250 kmph, leaving no emissions.
Dual-powered trains are fueled with cells in areas without electric traction. Agencies
