China's first genuinely fast locomotive capable of traveling at 300
kilometers per hour is scheduled to enter service at the end of the year,
according to sources with the Ministry of Railways.
The CRH-3, the
latest model in the country's China Railway High-speed (CRH) Series, is expected
to come off the production line at the end of the year.
About
eighty percent of its parts and components are domestically produced.
The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed track and the Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger-only
route will be the first to see the CRH-3 as China moves resolutely into the era
of high-speed train travel.
Zhang Shuguang, chief of the Ministry's
Transportation Bureau, said that 700 CRH trains would be put into service by
2010.
About 52 of the earlier, slower CRH series -- able to travel at
200 kilometers per hour -- are already in service.
Another 68
high-powered locomotives are pulling cargo trains at 120 kilometers per hour on
the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou lines, he said.
"By the end
of this year, 160 CRH motor unit trains and 448 high-power electric locomotives
will be in operation," Zhang said.
The CRH series includes the CRH-1,
CRH-2, CRH-5 and CRH-3. Each of them has been developed by local companies and
foreign partners from Canada, Japan, France and Germany.
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