China to test first hybrid-power train

Chinese authorities will test the country's first hybrid-power train next month, sources said.

The train will complete its technical debugging phase by the end of this month in Jilin province and tests are scheduled to start at the China Academy of Railway Sciences in June, which will take six months to ensure product quality, safety and efficiency, project officials said on Thursday.

The new model will have between two and three power sources including integrated internal combustion power of diesel generator package and a power battery pack to cut carbon emissions and diesel costs, the China Daily reported.

An Zhongyi, Changchun Railway Vehicles Co.'s (CRRC) general manager, said the train will give the country the edge in shifting from operating electrified railway networks to fully non-electrified ones, a move that favors the development of hybrid-powered trains.

The new train will run at between 120 and 160 km per hour, and is best-suited to be operated on lines of under 100 km in length, or on rail journeys of less than an hour.

"The design team has already tackled technical issues such as weight control, noise and vibration," said Li Xuefei, the project's chief engineer at CRRC Changchun.

Li said the train is powered using either a pantograph system, an apparatus mounted on its roof which gathers power through contact with an overhead wire, or an internal combustion power pack or power battery pack, to run if a power grid is unavailable.

China is expected to continue a relatively large scale of railway investment over the next five years.

--IANS

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