A glimpse into China's first inter-city high-speed railway

The Beijing-Tianjin Passenger railway finished laying down its tracks on Sunday, marking a new era in China's history of railway construction.
Wang Zhijian, Deputy GM at the Beijing-Tianjin Inter-city Railway Co. Ltd, on the day celebrating the linkup of the rail tracks exclaimed: “from this day forward, China will be part of the international club of high-speed train service providers.”
The high-speed railway, to open as scheduled for the 2008 summer Olympics, not only indicates that China has reached the most advanced international standards of railway construction. It also fulfills the designers' dream to complete a massive project that is simple but elegant in design; and both highly efficient and environment-friendly.
The high-speed train is designed to operate at half of the average speed per hour of a flight; whereas the energy consumption for per unit of transport capacity only makes up 1/6 of a private car. It can run without repair for consecutive 60 years.
Aerial railway
The aerial railway, as it is described, is supported by gigantic elevated case beams, each weighing 900 tons – equivalent to the weight of 1,000 cars. Each case beam covers an area of 443 square meters: 23 square meters larger than a basketball court.
What's more, Fan Chengguo, chief engineering director of the project, said the construction technology and skills used to build these case beams and railway bases are developed and researched in a totally independent way – based on China's national resources and conditions.
Technological innovation means saying goodbye to the traditional way of paving tracks with fragments of stone. The new pavement steers clear of stones and crossties, eradicating old image of railways as being “bulky and dirty.” The inter-city rail track has adopted the most up-to-date pavement technology; and presents a new look of being “white and clean” by using 34,606 pieces of cement pavement – each 6.5 meters in length with markings on the surface – and under the supervision of GPS location system. The cement rail tracks prove to be even and smooth with an error tolerance of less than 0.2 millimeters.
Noise-free railway
The monotonous rhythm of trains clicking on the rails is a thing of the past, now replaced by the quietness and comfort of traveling at high speeds on elevated rails. No train travel so far can match its refinements: the top-notch melting quality of the 500-meter seam-less steel rails are so smooth that no welding joint was detected by hand even at the melting point.
Besides, to ease vibrations while in service, voids beneath the cement track pavementsare filled with concrete. The concrete used to make the pavements even is also a new material developed by Chinese experts – nicknamed ‘remain even' – which means it can level itself out by automatically flowing into uneven areas without human manipulation. In so doing, noise pollution can be eradicated.
The 120km-long railway is the first in the Chinese mainland to have trains that run 300km/h and to shorten travel between two major cities in northern China from over an hour to 30 minutes; and a minimum interval between trains of 3 minutes. Smooth, fast and comfortable: it is scheduled to be operational just in time for the 2008 Olympics.
By People's Daily Online