An unmanned 10,000-tonne-level heavy haul train completed its first trial run on Thursday in China, marking a breakthrough from automatic driving to unmanned driving on heavy-haul railway.
At 8:36 local time, the test train departed from Huanghua South Station in north China's Hebei Province on the Shuozhou-Huanghua Railway, one of the major heavy-haul railways for China's west-to-east coal transportation program, and arrived at Dongying West Station in east China's Shandong Province following two and a half hours of smooth operation.
The train consists of 108 carriages, with a total length of about 1,300 meters and a total load of 10,800 tonnes.
China has achieved independent control from key technologies to management and control modes.
"The trial operation of this unmanned heavy haul train has achieved the system-wide upgrade including automatic driving, intelligent operation and maintenance, and dispatching and centralized control. Through the remote-control console, the train's operating status can be monitored in real time and intelligently, realizing total factor control of the train's movement, static state, and change," said Zhou Zhansong, director of heavy haul train traction technology laboratory of Shuohuang Railway Development Co., Ltd. under China Energy.
During the test, there are three technologies filling in the domestic gaps in related fields, realizing unmanned train driving and station control.
After the mass application of the unmanned driving technology, it is expected that the average running speed of trains will rise by 1.7 km per hour and the average traction energy consumption will decrease by 2.9 percent, which will greatly improve the efficiency of west-to-east coal transportation in China.
The Shuozhou-Huanghua Railway, linking the coal base of Shanxi Province and the Huanghua Port in Hebei Province, is China's second-largest channel for coal transport.
China successfully tests unmanned 10,000-tonne-level heavy haul train
