Two new “Fuxing Hao” trains debuted on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail link on Monday. Owned by China Railway Corporation, the two trains – G123 and G124 – set off at 11.05am. Traveling at 300 km/h, they were expected to make the 1,318km journey in five and three-quarter hours, according to Taiwan’s United Daily News.
The Fuxing Hao, which translates as “the Rejuvenation”, is known as a China Standardized EMU (electric multiple unit) train. Its launch comes eight years after Hexie Hao high-speed trains were first put into use in 2007.
The trains have undergone testing at over 400 km/h, which is faster than the 380 km/h that can be reached by the CRH380 (China Railway High-Speed 380), the newest type of Hexie Hao high-speed train. The Fuxing Hao’s projected life-span is a decade longer than Hexie Hao’s 20 years.
The Fuxing Hao accommodates over 2,500 monitoring points to supervise temperature, braking and surroundings in real-time. Its interior space is also more comfortable than its predecessor as the carriage height has increased to around four meters from 3.7 meters and seat space is at least 102 centimeters. WiFi is available for the whole journey and more stable charging and lighting equipment are provided.
There are two types of Fuxing Hao, made by different manufacturers and presented in different colors: the “Dolphin Blue” (CR400AF) and the “Golden Phoenix” (CR400BF). Both have streamlined body work, producing lower resistance than the CRH380. The abbreviation “CR” refers to “China Railway”, which is distinct from CRH.
The launch of the Fuxing Hao took five years from conception. Of the 254 criteria used in construction, around 84% meet Chinese national standards, while the remainder match international standards.
He Huawu, CRC’s Chief Engineer, told Sina Finance that the Chinese Standard EMU technology would be used in a forthcoming high-speed rail project in Indonesia and that the Fuxing Hao will spearhead Chinese high-speed rail on the global stage.
The U.S. USED to have a commanding presence in the diesel locomotive but General Motors seemed to stop caring and let its EMD diesel locmotive division languish and, unsurprisingly, EMD has fallen to the wayside. AND General Electric sat on its laurels and put all of its eggs into its freight diesel locomotives and just stopped bothering with locomotives for passenger service.
As a result, today all new diesel locomotives being purchased for passenger trains across the United States are almost all either from the Canadian-German Bombardier or the German Siemens.
American manufacturers of metro, subway, light rail and other mass transit trains disappeared decades ago and so all the new subway trains for the NYC Subway are ALL built by either the French Alstom or the Japanese Kawasaki. And all LIRR and Metro North EMU trains are built by Alstom or Kawasaki or Bombardier.
In Chicago, the most recent metro L trains were purchased from Bombardier AS THERE WERE NO AMERICAN BUILDERS.
In addition, ALL new LRV trains being built and sold to the new LRV systems being built across the United States are exclusively being built by European firms (Siemens, Bombardier) or East Asian firms (Kawasaki, Hyundai-Rotem).
AND, in the ultimate eye-opener, if not slap in the face, for Americans, thousands of new metro/subway cars for the Boston and Chicago and Los Angeles rail transit systems are being purchased from the Chinese CSR-Sifang corporation.
The United States is simply following its predecessor "superpower" the British who at one time was the larget manufacturer of trains and sold British built trains across the globe. But after "Empire" BANKRUPTED Britain, the mass manufacturing base of Great Britain withered away. Now the United States would rather pursue EMPIRE (i.e. "global policeman") rather than a manufacturing base.
There’s no high speed train to "steal" from the United States as the lone single line carrying (near)"bullet" trains in the U.S. were made by the French and sold to the Americans……….. who haver never built any kind of "bullet" EMU train.
John Jefkins : China is already selling trains ACROSS THE WORLD.
Try to google the fact that a Chinese corp. is building and selling metro and rapid transit trains to Boston and Chicago and Los Angeles.
Even in Silicon valley which is supposed to be the Mecca of technology and world leader in innovatons, our trains (Caltrain) are running on Diesel engine using trains and cabins built in 1985 in Japan. Sadly the train passed through the heart of Silicon Valley near Google, Face book and others and doesn’t have internet on board. American train technology is 40 years behind most industrial countries.
Fantastice! Good for China and good for the world.
Is this high speed bullet train stolen from usa?
Exactly. But one day soon America will wake up. Its improving its Acela (which is a semi-high speed train) and is already building a 350km/hr line from LA to SF (which is the same speed these trains are limited to)
And China needs to improve its reputation for quality control a touch before it will really sell these new trains elsewhere.
But China is catching up with Europe, its well ahead of the USA and it will take those Yanks a very long time to catch up with us all….
High speed rail in 25 countries has now wiped out air markets (airlines have given up flying various city-city routes as they could not compete with city-city centre 200mph rail travel).
As for safety, with billions of people now carried by 200mph rail for over 50 years with NO DEATHS at all in countries like Japan or France, these special trains (when travelling on their dedicated new lines with their safer signalling) now have a better safety record than normal trains or air travel.
As for car travel, that has a TERRIBLE safety record.
So most people DO prefer 200mph rail – for safety and city-city speed – over either car or air travel. Across Europe more people now travel by HSR than short haul air on a network of thousands of km of new lines.
Oh Chinese trains are junk, it can only go 400km, have WIFI, comfortable, & with useful life of 30 years, America can do better even though we don’t have even one high speed train. 🙂
Your right they would rather sit for 7 hours on a freeway then take one of these, when they could do it in 45 min. lol its that all American know how called cutting off you nose to spite your face…
As many developed countries have already developed many other advanced and cheaper travel alternatives like air travels, express highways etc., most folks don’t need nor want this sometimes dangerous high speed train, bullet trains, mass rapid transport or whatever they may choose to hype it up.
I bet close up will make you a world leader… in a well.
It was the political clout of the car and oil companies that pushed cars, trucks, and buses over rail in the USA after WWII. The third world status of the US is a by-product, not a goal, of this effort.
Very Sad the condition of our infrastructure and train services compared to other developed countries. We used to lead the world and now the Internationalists are intentionally turning us into a third world country.
That is amazing!
That’s awesome