By Li Xinping, People’s Daily
On Sept. 24, 1909, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, designed by Zhan Tianyou, known as the “father of China’s railroad,” was officially completed. It was the first trunk railway in China that was independently designed and constructed by Chinese.
In commemoration of the railroad engineer, a statue of him has been erected beside the Qinglongqiao Station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, which sits at the foot of the Great Wall in Yanqing, Beijing.
On Dec. 30, 2019, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway went into operation. Equipped with an autopilot system, it is the world’s first smart high-speed railway with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour..
From constituting China’s first iron road to becoming the world’s most advanced railway, and lifting the speed from 35 kilometers per hour to 350 kilometers per hour, the rail tracks linking Beijing and Zhangjiakou are a witness to not only China’s railway development, but also the giant leap of the country’s comprehensive strength in a century.
“Thanks to the autopilot system, Fuxing bullet trains boast a stopping accuracy within 10 centimeters from braking to a complete halt,” said Wang Haitao, head of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou train team of the Huairou North Locomotive Depot, China Railway Beijing Group.
The Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway is a hallmark of China’s advanced manufacturing. Leveraging the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and geography information system, managers of the railway can monitor every bridge, track section, and roadbed along the entire line around the clock, enabling seamless operations, scheduling, maintenance, and emergency response. Whether it’s component wear, roadbed settlement, or signal failures, everything is under precise control.
A Fuxing bullet train is equipped with over 2,000 monitoring points, providing comprehensive self-monitoring for intelligent operations. Supported by the BDS, the train automatically calculates optimal driving strategies based on terrain and track conditions, adjusting speed smoothly for a seamless ride from start to finish.
The International Union of Railways praised the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway, calling it an outstanding example of artificial intelligence implementation in the railway industry to date.
