With Nanjing Metro Line 7 to be fully automated, so many local citizens wonder as to the eventual reality. China’s latest driverless metro train, just one aspect of such a line, has given us a glimpse at the recently-held World Intelligence Congress.
The driverless train, Built by CRRC Tangshan, was one of the few physical attendees at the Congress that was held mostly online in this, its forth incarnation. As a showpiece for the Congress, the train pulled up at a platform before opening and closing its doors as a display of capability.
The week-long World Intelligence Congress closed at the end of last month in the city of Tianjin, which like Nanjing, is seeking to replace old growth drivers with new industries, such as the kind of artificial intelligence needed to operate driverless metro systems.
According to a press release by the Congress, the cloud opening ceremony, presided over by Gong Ke, Chairman of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations, was watched by some 58.6 million people.
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Fully-automated metro lines offer numerous advantages over their human-controlled counterparts. Trains have a great passenger capacity, use less power and can run at more frequent intervals. The train unveiled in Tianjin has a crush-load capacity for 2,300 passengers in its six-car configuration, a load that would normally require a seven-car set, reported Railway Gazette.
While it is at present unclear whether CRRC Tangshan will produce the actual cars for Line 7, the train control and monitoring system (TCMS) for the line shall be supplied by Alstom. The French multinational, specialised in rail transport, will supply its OptONIX traction system, specially developed for the Chinese market, for use in all the trains on Nanjing’s first automated line.
Nanjing Line 7 shall also be the eighth driverless metro line in China that includes Alstom solutions, the others being Chengdu Line 9, Daxing Airport Express, Hong Kong South Island Line (East), Shanghai Metro Lines 10, 15 and 18, and Wuhan Line 21.
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While many of these are still in the planning and construction stages, the Daxing Airport Express is China’s driverless metro service to most recently enter operation. The link between the new Beijing Daxing International Airport and Caoqiao on the city’s Southern 3rd Ring Road opened on 26 September, 2019, the very same day the airport opened.
Nanjing Metro Line 7 being “fully automated” means that it shall join the exclusive club known as GoA4 (Grade of Automation 4), in which member trains are distinct by being capable of operating automatically at all times, while also being able to open and close doors, detect obstacles and react to emergencies.
No matter the constructor, trains on Nanjing Metro Line 7 will undoubtedly include many of the same features as those making their debut at the Congress in Tianjin. With a bit of luck, the forward and rear facing windows shall be present, undoubtedly making for Nanjing’s top internet celebrity check-in point when Line 7 opens, likely by the end of next year.
