On December 14, the 14th Annual Meeting of the World Railway Development and Research Society & the "Blue Book for Rail Traffic (2017)" hosted by the World Railway Development and Research Society and the Vehicle Committee of China Railway Society was held in Beijing. At the meeting, the list of China's Top 50 cities in terms of competitiveness of rail transit was revealed, and Shenzhen ranked among the top ten.
According to the Blue Book, rail transit is a way to transport people and goods using rail trains. Its features are fast speed, large handling capacity, safety, environmental protection, plus energy saving and land conservation. In our country, rail transit mainly includes railways and urban rail transit (referred to as "urban rail"). Among them, the urban rail transit mainly falls into 7 types, i.e. subway, light rail, modern tram, the urban rapid rail, monorail, maglev transport and APM.
At present, China has implemented a series of national strategies such as the "Belt and Road Initiative", the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and the economic belt of the Yangtze River, in which rail transit plays an extremely important role. By introducing, digesting, absorbing and innovating independently, China's rail transit technology has taken the lead worldwide in many key indicators. It ranks first in the world in terms of high-speed railway mileage, urban rail transit mileage, high-speed rail mileage under construction, and urban rail transit mileage under construction.
The Blue Book pointed out that a series of core technologies such as traction control systems, braking systems, permanent magnet driving systems, and high-power IGBT of China's high-speed EMU have made substantial breakthroughs. Driverless technology, industrial Ethernet and other key technologies have also shown great progress. China's standard speed EMU passed the assessment for operation when two trains succeeded in passing each other at a speed of over 420 km/h and a relative speed of 840 km/h.
The first low and medium-speed maglev rapid rail was officially put into operation. The first suspension rail train rolled off the production line. The key scientific research products such as humpback transport vehicles, the series of fast trucks with a speed of 160-200 km have also achieved great progress. High-speed EMU, high-power locomotives, heavy trucks, urban rail vehicles and other rail transit vehicles have reached the world advanced level. Rail transit has become a shining "business card" for China and is now writing a magnificent scenario for national growth.
Data also shows that in 2016, 801.5 billion RMB was invested in fixed assets for the railway industry in China, and mileage of 3,281 kilometers put into use. Sales volume of the CRRC in China has dominated 69% of the global high-speed rail market. By the end of 2016, the national railway mileage under operation reached 124,000 km and the railway electrification rate was 64.5, of which 22,000 km were high-speed railways, accounting for 64% of the total global high-speed railways. Urban rail transit operating in 30 cities had a mileage of over 4,150 km under operation.
The Blue Book pointed out that based on indicators such as the technology innovation index, supply industry index, application industry index, management innovation index, business model innovation index and sustainable development index, 200 major cities were graded in terms of their efforts to operate, construct and regulate rail transit on the mainland or provide rail traffic products and services. The top 50 were selected according to the overall scores, with Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Shenzhen and Chongqing respectively among the top 10.
