China s Ministry of Railways (MOR) signed a deal with state-owned vehicle producer CNR Corporation Limited (CNR) here on 16 March to purchase 100 high-speed CRH trains for 39.2 billion yuan (US$5.74 billion).
CRH, an abbreviation for China Railway High-speed, refers to trains with speeds above 200 km per hour. With a designed speed of 350km/h, the new CRH trains will travel between Beijing and Shanghai in 2011, when the construction of the 1318-km, high-speed railway between the capital city and the country s financial hub is expected to complete.
According to the agreement between the ministry and CNR, all 100 trains will be self-developed and manufactured under the CNR group. Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. and Changchun Railway Vehicle Co., two CNR subsidiaries, will be in charge of the production of 60 sets and 40 sets, respectively.
CNR Changchun built CRH5 200km/h EMUs in 2007 for the six speed acceleration and CNR Tangshan built CRH3 350km/h EMUs in 2008 for the Olympic Game. CRH3 Harmony EMU is the main force in Chinese high speed railway, which created a 394.3 km/h speed record in China.
The new CRH trains will be composed of 16 cars, 8M+8T, including 1 VIP car, 3 first class cars, 11 second class car and 1 dining car. The seating capacity is 1,026. The prototype will be finished in July 2010.
Zhang Shuguang, director of the transport department under the MOR. said China would see "large purchases" of CRH trains in the coming years upon the completion of more passenger railway lines across the country.
The MOR has planned to spend 500 billion yuan to buy trains over the next four years.
"The purchases will provide strong support for related industries," Zhang said.
The manufacturing of a CRH train requires nearly 100,000 parts from a wide range of industries such as mechanics, metallurgy, electrics, chemical, and materials.
"We will buy more CRH trains this year as a move to help stimulate domestic demand," said Zhang without giving further details on the purchasing plan.
