A Chinese firm said Wednesday that it has started a running test of the first China-developed maglev train, and it now has the ability for mass production.

China's first home-made low-and medium-speed maglev train is under running test in Tangshan in north China's Hebei Province on Monday, June 15, 2009. [Yanzhao Metropolis Daily]

The Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd., which is based in Tangshan City of north China's Hebei Province, said the train has a designed speed of up to 120 kilometers per hour, and has three carriages. The carriages can each have 100 to 120 seats.

The company's partner in the maglev project, the Beijing Enterprises Holdings Maglev Technology Development Co., Ltd., said earlier this year that the maglev train would be ready to go into mass production, once it has completed 100,000 test kilometers.

A spokesman with the Tangshan company said the company has not yet secured a commercial contract, though Shenzhen city in south China approached the company and asked it to conduct a feasibility study into the use of the maglev technology for the planned urban rail project.

He said the low- and medium-speed maglev train may offer a new option for urban transport. The train's working noise can hardly be heard five meters away.

The Tangshan company has been engaged in the research of the maglev technology for more than ten years, which has been listed as a national key technology research program supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2009)