China unveils trackless train

Chinese railcar-maker CRRC has unveiled a trackless train which uses rubber wheels on a plastic core and runs on a virtual track in a bid to speed up public transportation.
June 5, 2017 Read time: 1 min

Chinese railcar-maker CRRC has unveiled a trackless train which uses rubber wheels on a plastic core and runs on a virtual track in a bid to speed up public transportation.

The Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) bus-rail combo rapid transit system was demonstrated in Zhuzhou, Hunan province and is said to be non-polluting, according to People’s Daily Online.

CRRC began designing the system in 2013. The first car is 31 metres long, with a maximum passenger load of 307 people or 48 tons. Its top speed is 70 kilometres per hour and it can travel 25 kilometres after 10 minutes of charging.

According to CRRC, ART is likely to be around one-fifth of the cost of an ordinary subway, which cost about 400-700 million yuan (£45.6 - £79 million) per kilometre in China.

The world’s first train will be launched on a 6.5 kilometre line in Zhuzhouand, once completed, will be able to dock with the city’s mid-low speed maglev train.

Related Content

  • January 9, 2018
    Smarter transport remains key to smart cities
    Colin Sowman looks at some of the challenges and solutions that will provide enhanced transport efficiency in tomorrow’s smarter cities. However you define a ‘smart city’, one of the key ingredients will be an efficient transport system. As most governments and city authorities face financial constraints, incremental improvements in the existing systems is the most likely way forward. In London, new trains and signalling are improving the capacity of the Underground but that then reveals previously
    Read More
  • April 10, 2014
    Columbia goes intermodal to support sustainability
    David Crawford on the ups and downs of a Latin metropolis. Medellín, Colombia’s second city and a recognised leader in sustainable transport thinking, is rapidly extending its substantial existing investment in modern mobility. It is deploying both an enhanced integrated traffic management array and the country’s first intermodal public transportation management system. The supplier of both, under separate €9 million (US$12.3 million) contracts, is Spanish engineering company Indra, a major exporter
    Read More
  • April 30, 2015
    The UK’s busiest crossing adopts free flow charging
    Colin Sowman looks at the transition to free-flow charging on the Dartford Crossing, a notorious congestion blackspot on the UK motorway network. The Dartford Crossing, where London’s orbital M25 motorway crosses the lower reaches of the River Thames 32km (20 miles) to the east of Central London, has long been a major source of congestion. Now, to alleviate the congestion caused by some 50 million crossings per year, the Highways Agency has adopted a free-flow charging system - but the Crossing’s location a
    Read More
  • January 6, 2022
    Arup picks 8 ways ITS can save the planet
    The solutions we need to accelerate carbon-free transport are known, available and ready to be deployed. Tim Gammons from Arup explains what the ITS industry can do now to help…
    Read More

Highlighted Content