The world's first Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (ART) line, a new urban rail transit product developed by the CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive was put into commercial operation in Yibing, Sichuan Province, on December 5, 2019. 

 

The ART system made a debut in June 2017. It features both large capacity and high economic efficiency. 

 

The ART trains have invisible "rails" realized by the virtual rail following control technology developed by the CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive’s innovation team. A number of sensors on the trains can recognize the virtual rails on roads, and thus help trains adjust traction, braking, and steering performances through the central control unit’s instructions, and run along designated virtual rails. 

 

"It is highly intelligent, which is its greatest competitive advantage," said Zhou Sheng, general manager of the operation company of the ART line. It is highly intelligent in rail following, safety, passenger experiences, operation, traffic management, and maintenance. Beyond that, it enjoy convenient approval procedures, low construction cost, and high environmentally-friendly standard. 

 

The Yibing ART line T1 is 17.7 km in length, with a rough investment of 1.128 billion CNY. Among these, 940 million CNY was put in ART construction, and 188 million CNY in supporting infrastructure construction. 

 

In addition to Yibing, the ART projects will be promoted in more than 80 cities at home and abroad, such as China's Chengdu, Xi'an and Chongqing, and State of Qatar’s Doha. Sixteen projects, including one overseas project, are ongoing. 

 

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

 

Translator: Pang Yuehui

 

Chinese source: chinanews.com