Today, words like "unmanned", "automated" and "driverless" seem to be conquering the world of technology.
China already has unmanned convenience stores and supermarkets. Driverless cars were also given the green-light to operate on certain test roads recently.
On Saturday, the country launched its first-ever fully-automated subway line.
Photo via CGTN
And that's not all. It is also China's first-ever completely domestically-produced line. That includes everything from rolling stocks to signal communication systems, CCTV and rail tracks.
The Yanfang line takes you from Beijing's southwestern suburban areas of Yanshan to Fangshan, from where you can then transfer to trains on Line 9, which are bound for Beijing city center.
According to the subway operator, a whole trip runs through 9 stations, spanning across 14.4 kilometers, costs just 5 yuan.
CONVENIENCE TO SOUTHWESTERN SUBURBS
Fu Jingtao, Yanfang line manager with Beijing MTR Operation Admin Corp., said this line will help bring convenience to people living in Yanshan.
"Previously people had to rely on buses or taxis to get to Fangshan district. But now with this subway line, residents can have a more seamless journey without being too affected by weather or traffic conditions," Fu said.
Photo via CGTN
SECURITY MEASURES
To be sure, there will still be an attendant on board to monitor track conditions and attend to emergencies.
Although, his or her role will merely be to supervise, and not to operate.
The subway operator said the Yanfang line was designed by the Grades of Automation level 3 (GoA 3) standard.
According to the International Association of Public Transport, GoA 3 is the fourth level of its five-level standard – there's a GoA 0 meaning no automation at all – meaning this is just one step away from fully automation.
"When passengers become more accustomed to this, we will upgrade it to GoA 4, which is said to be the highest level of urban rail transit operation systems," said Mao Xinde, who is the automation operation system project director for Beijing Traffic Control Technology.
Photo via CGTN
WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS
Automated subway trains are not a new concept.
Paris reportedly started using a driverless subway in 1998, and Copenhagen in 2002.
The core difference for the Yanfang line, according to Mao, lies within its signal system.
"Compared to what is imported, ours is based on operational habits in China. We have integrated data in the vehicle-ground transmit network, to make this automatic operation system more in accordance to our rail transit industry's operational needs," he said.
Mao added that the Yanfang line is equipped with 4G-based train control.
Photo via CGTN
TRIP TO THE SUBURBS
Interestingly, this line has attracted not only those wishing to head to Beijing city center, but also urban passengers who wish to explore the suburbs.
"I wanted to see a petroleum factory in Yanshan because that's what Yanshan is known for. I also wanted to try this line out, because it is China's first domestic-made automated subway," said a female passenger.
Yanshan is a suburb built around a petroleum and chemical enterprise, with Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Company's petrochemical complex situated there.
The Yanfang line is one of the three new lines launched on Saturday. Altogether, with these lines, Beijing will have 22 lines, with a total length of 608 kilometers.
Beijing plans to extend the subway to 30 lines with a length of 900 kilometers by 2020.
NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and its inspector general over a declaration that could complicate access to gender-affirming care for young people.
The declaration issued last Thursday called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for children and adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria, or the distress when someone’s gender expression doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. It also warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide those types of care.
The declaration came as HHS also announced proposed rules meant to further curtail gender-affirming care for young people, although the lawsuit doesn't address those as they are not final.
Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon, alleges that the declaration is inaccurate and unlawful and asks the court to block its enforcement. It's the latest in a series of clashes between an administration that's cracking down on transgender health care for children, arguing it can be harmful to them, and advocates who say the care is medically necessary and shouldn't be inhibited.
“Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Tuesday.
The lawsuit alleges that HHS’s declaration seeks to coerce providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. It says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively changing health policy — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the declaration was issued.
A spokesperson for HHS declined to comment.
HHS's declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.
The report questioned standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raised concerns that adolescents may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.
Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.
The declaration was announced as part of a multifaceted effort to limit gender-affirming health care for children and teenagers — and built on other Trump administration efforts to target the rights of transgender people nationwide.
HHS on Thursday also unveiled two proposed federal rules — one to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children, and another to prohibit federal Medicaid dollars from being used for such procedures.
The proposals are not yet final or legally binding and must go through a lengthy rulemaking process and public comment before becoming permanent. But they will nonetheless likely further discourage health care providers from offering gender-affirming care to children.
Several major medical providers already have pulled back on gender-affirming care for young patients since Trump returned to office — even in states where the care is legal and protected by state law.
Medicaid programs in slightly less than half of states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.
Joining James in Tuesday's lawsuit were Democratic attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania's Democratic governor also joined.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaks during an event on prescription drug prices in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
