On August 1, 2008, as the C2275 train slowly departed from Beijing South Station, China's first high-speed railway—the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway—officially commenced operations. China formally entered the era of high-speed rail, becoming the fourth country in the world to systematically master high-speed rail technology with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour.
On June 21, 2024, Han Baoming, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Expert Academic Committee of the China Urban Rail Transit Association, brought a lecture titled "China's Speed is Getting Faster and Faster, Which Disciplines Have Woven the 'Transportation Network'?" at the Science Popularization China · Starry Sky Lecture, telling us about the development of China's high-speed rail.
Here is an excerpt from Han Baoming's speech:
Hello everyone, I am Han Baoming, from Beijing Jiaotong University and the China Urban Rail Transit Association.
When it comes to China's speed, the first thing that comes to mind is China's high-speed rail. There are two aspects of China's high-speed rail that we need to understand: First, its construction speed is extremely fast; second, its operational speed is gradually increasing.So, what has China's high-speed rail brought us? What magnificent waves has it experienced in its development process?
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The Six Major Speed Enhancements of China's Railway
In the 1990s, when China's expressways were rapidly developing, the railway industry faced a huge impact, as the speed of expressways could reach 100 kilometers per hour. This made our railway passenger trains, which had an average travel speed of only about 40 kilometers per hour at the time, seem fragile.
How could we make our railways more competitive in such a market environment? Chinese railway workers began the journey of starting and exploring, which is what we now refer to as the six major speed enhancements.
This work started in 1994, and in 1997, the first speed enhancement from 120 kilometers to 140 kilometers was achieved on the three main lines of China's railways. The increase in speed was not significant, and the scope was not extensive, but it was a breakthrough journey, which led to a significant improvement in the technology of various professions and fields in our railways.Image Source: Author
Over the next decade, there has been significant advancement in the manufacturing technology of high-speed trains, as well as in our time-space tunnels, bridges, lines, and stations, and other related equipment.
In the first five major speed increases, the highest speed of our trains reached 160 kilometers. By the sixth major speed increase, a new breakthrough was achieved, with the operational speed of trains having been raised to 200 kilometers, and some sections increased to 250 kilometers. Such speeds have already met the standards of high-speed railways. There is an international railway organization in the world, the "International Union of Railways (UIC)", and its definition is that railways with existing transformation speeds reaching 200 kilometers and new electric lines reaching more than 250 kilometers can be called high-speed railways.
During the process of speed increase, high-speed railways are also nurturing their development path. In 2004, the State Council passed a major strategic decision, which is the "Mid to Long-term Railway Development Plan". In this plan, an important blueprint was depicted, that is, China must vigorously develop high-speed railways, four vertical and four horizontal high-speed railways, and the high-speed railways of the three major economic circles, which will gradually become our future development direction.
In this process, through continuous adjustments, our target values are also continuously increasing. The standard in 2004 was 12,000 kilometers, and then to the mileage we have now achieved, 45,000 kilometers was the performance completed last year, and by the end of this year, we can achieve 50,000 kilometers.How much do we aim to achieve in the future? This should be determined based on the needs of socio-economic development to decide an overall scale.
Railways are not just a road.
Globally, the earliest development of high-speed railways began in 1964 with Japan's operation of the world's first high-speed railway, which had a speed of 200 kilometers per hour at the time. Subsequently, countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom also began to build and operate high-speed railways, but their total mileage only accounts for less than thirty percent of the global total.
In just a few decades, China has developed high-speed railways into a shining business card for the country, becoming a strong force supporting China's economic, social, and urban development.Image copyright images, reprint and use may lead to copyright disputes.
2005 was a very important year for the start of the development of China's high-speed railways. In addition to the EMU (Electric Multiple Unit), we also have many other railway systems that need to be in line with international standards. Therefore, a huge research institution was established at that time, and more than 200 scientists from all over the country were organized to negotiate technology together. At that time, I led more than a dozen professors from Beijing Jiaotong University with different majors to participate in this centralized negotiation process.
High-speed trains involve a lot of fields and materials. The nine key technologies we see all need to be deeply transferred and innovated with foreign countries, as well as ten supporting technologies. We have 8000 parts in a train, all kinds of materials, all kinds of technologies, all need the support of China's industrial system. We want to achieve independent production, so here, there must be an industrial system to support it.
So there is a saying, "The development level of a country's high-speed railway represents the level of industrialization of the country."
Next, let's take a look at the railway system. I entered Beijing Jiaotong University in 1980. During this period, after more than 40 years of study, I have been constantly transforming, learning, and integrating in these systems.The major I studied is transportation management. Transportation management must be able to clearly articulate and explain the rules of operation, specific technical requirements, and personnel who can bring all these together for all other professions.
Image source: Author
When we talk about the power supply for vehicles, this involves transportation, locomotive and vehicle, industrial engineering, and now an increasing number of professions such as power supply and environmental protection. The advanced technology of these professions is needed to support the further development of the railway, and they are also coupled with each other.
We can imagine that if a railway is not a railway, but a transportation system, can it run as long as there are vehicles and roads? The progress of the times has brought many new changes. Passenger services and operational scheduling are the most important windows for us to connect with the market and society, but this window also needs everyone to continuously adopt new technologies and information means to improve this process during the development process.
For example, in the development process of high-speed railways, high-speed railways abroad generally operate for two to three hours, at most four hours to reach the destination, and the railway does not operate at night, it is completely in the maintenance state.But for China's high-speed railways, we have 4500 kilometers. A train that starts from Urumqi has to travel thousands of kilometers to reach Shanghai. In such cases, is it possible for us to drive at night?
In 2012, the Ministry of Railways proposed such a concept, and then our team began research in this area, working with the China Railway Science and Industry Corporation to formulate a research plan. After repeated adjustments and demonstrations, after the full opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou line in 2014, the total length is 2300 kilometers, and it takes more than 8 hours to arrive. At the same time, it is very necessary to operate the overnight dynamic sleeping car trains.
Not long ago, night dynamic sleeping car trains were also opened from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The opening of such trains requires the support of many professionals behind the scenes to complete this task.
We want to perceive whether this railway and this train operation is in a safe state, not by the driver, but by relying on our many advanced intelligent high-speed railways inside the sensors and videos, to capture some risk factors in time to overcome.
On our train, we will also install hundreds of sensors to perceive the state of every part of the train, every important part. Once there is a situation, there is a problem, we need to deal with it in time. Like in the weather of wind, rain, and snow, we also need to do this work to ensure its safe operation.High-speed Rail Has Changed Our Lives
High-speed railways have not only brought convenient travel conditions to everyone but have also brought economic development and prosperity to the country and regions, as well as a new ecological change to our cities.
We can see that in many places, new high-speed railway stations are no longer like a very empty square or an independent building in the past, but are integrated with the city.
The Hangzhou West Station, which was completed and opened to traffic two years ago, is surrounded by many office buildings, commercial facilities, hotels, industrial parks, and residences closely related to the city. Due to the construction of the high-speed railway station, the economic development of the western part of Hangzhou has produced a gathering effect, becoming a core point and a new driving force for future development. There are also places like Shenzhen Xili, where more than 5,000 innovative and high-tech enterprises have settled around a station.
We can imagine that what high-speed rail brings us is not only a change in speed but more importantly, a change in our lives. High-speed rail changes our living habits and our lives. In the past, a single trip might take a whole day, but now you can go back and forth in a day.High-speed rail has had a profound and far-reaching impact on China. Now, the technology of China's high-speed rail is gradually going global, forming international achievements. For example, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway we have just completed in Indonesia, the Hungary-Serbia high-speed railway we are currently constructing, and the high-speed rail projects that other countries are negotiating with China, will have a significant impact on our humanity and our future.
I remember when China's high-speed rail just started, a European reporter said: "The development of China in the next fifty years, the economic takeoff, the high-speed rail now has 45,000 kilometers, it may be nearly 70,000 kilometers or even more, such a support is an indispensable important infrastructure for China's economic development."
We also welcome students to explore this field in the future, whether it is high-speed rail or the intercity, suburban, and urban rail transit that are closer to the city now, they all have the same name called "rail", they have common characteristics, and there are also some subtle differences, but these fields are open to everyone.