Beijing to launch fully automated subway line
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 16, 2017
The first fully automatic subway line in China, Beijing's Yanfang Line, will be operational in southwest Beijing at the end of this year. The 20-kilometer-long Yanfang Line is equipped with fully independent Chinese technology and will help to establish a network of fully automatic subway by 2020, together with another 200-plus kilometers of subway lines currently under construction.
With this automation technology, the subway train can steer itself in every operational step, from starting up, to self-check, running, breaking, opening and closing the doors at station stops, re-starting and returning to the garage. It can even wash itself.
In 2013, the full automation technology, based on the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) technology, began implementation at the still under-construction Yanfang Line. In 2014, the Beijing municipal government, together with companies, universities and research centers, carried the project further by making it a national demo project of full automation system.
The successful application of the technology to Yanfang Line marked China's breakthrough in critical technologies like CBTC, which will no longer be monopolized by foreign entities. China will establish a series of standards and norms for the technology, which will also promote the development and industrialization of related facilities.
The subway personnel will supervise Yanfang Line during its early operation, but later on, the line will run completely on its own.
Upon the establishment of Yanfang Line, the full automation technology will also be adopted on Line 3, Line 12, Line 17, Line 19 and the new airport express in Beijing. Many other cities in China have begun to draw on the experiences from the Yanfang Line, and Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu will plan on constructing fully automated subway lines in the future.
The International Union of Public Transportation estimated that by 2020, 75 percent of new subway lines in the world will adopt full automation technologies, and 40 percent of the existing lines will upgrade to become fully automated. Companies that have engaged in the setup of Yanfang Line will embrace a larger market, and the full automation system developed independently by Chinese experts will be competing in the global market.
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