China’s largest railway enterprise has shelled out 2 billion RMB to establish the country’s first magnetic levitation company, marking the country’s push to speed up its industrialization.
China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) has established its subsidiary, China Railway Maglev Transportation Investment & Construction Co., LTD (CRMT), located in Wuhan, Hubei province. The subsidiary carries out research on maglev technology for passenger and cargo transportation, in addition to planning, managing, building and investing in maglev projects.
Lei Jiamin, president of CRMT, said that more than 10 cities in China are currently planning maglev railways. These cities include Changsha, Qingdao and Beijing. Beijing is building its first medium-low-speed maglev line S1, which will enter operation at the end of 2016, according to the Beijing Railway Construction Cooperation. It will take only 10 minutes to travel 10.2 kilometers from the city’s western suburb Shimenying to Pingguoyuan station on city subway Line 1.
According to CRMT, future low-speed maglev projects will aim to link large cities with their satellite cities, as well as suburbs to downtown areas. They will also be used in second- and third-tier Chinese cities as a substitute for subways. Currently, China has 142 cities with more than 1 million residents, but only around 30 cities have subways.