Soon, travel time between Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and tourist destination Ipoh 200 km away will be slashed to a little more than one hour. On the other side of the Pacific, Boston’s South Station subway will replace its archaic engines with new, air-conditioned metro trains.
Many of the new train technologies popping up over the world have Chinese train makers to thank.
With advanced technology and low prices, China’s high-speed trains, which are currently running on five continents, are increasingly becoming a business magnet, driving huge foreign orders. The turbo-charged industry is taking shape in the country.
On Sunday, China finished the world’s fastest meter-gage multiple unit trains for Malaysia. The fast trains will begin commuting between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh at 160 km per hour by the end of 2015, according to CSR Corp Ltd, one of China’s two major locomotive makers that produced the trains.
That deal forms part of the 98 train orders out of five programs Malaysia inked with China, making the latter one of the biggest supporters for Malaysia’s city rail transit systems.
Part of China’s train industry boom lies in innovation, as the country’s high-speed train makers turn more self-reliant, rather than depending on imported core technology.
Such progress can be seen in the latest technological development. Last week, trains fitted with homegrown electric traction drive system and network control went into last phase of trial operation. These are China’s first high-speed trains with such features.