With a snubbed nose, gray streamlined body and sleek red stripes, the China's speedy new Rejuvenation Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains have started making daily trips between Beijing and Tianjin every day.
The trains are capable of reaching 400 kilometers per hour, but hit a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour on this route.
Excited passengers took pictures with the handsome new electric trains, which debuted on August 21, taking over 19.5 pairs of scheduled runs.
A woman surnamed Zhou complimented the coziness inside the trains.
"It is spacious and comfortable," she said. There are 576 seats on the new EMU, 20 more than China's older CRH high speed trains. The trains are made in China with homegrown technology.
According to Liang Zhaoyu, spokesperson of Beijing South Railway Station, the ticket price of Rejuvenation EMU trains remains the same as the CRH trains, and there is free Wi-Fi on the new trains, fast enough for travelers to stream videos.
Passenger volume has increased from 67,000 people per day in 2013 to 82,000 in 2017, and 102,000,000 people have taken trains from Beijing South Railway Station to all destinations in the past nine years.
The past five years have seen a new Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei railway network gradually established. New railways include the Tianjin-Qinhuangdao Railway, Beijing-Tianjin extended railway and Tianjin-Baoding Railway. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, Beijing-Shenyang Passenger Railway and Shijiazhuang-Jinan Railway were extended. This network consists of a high speed railway, intercity railways as well as municipal railways.
Shopping in Wuqing
The Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway was the first high speed intercity railway in China. Since its opening in 2008, it has transported more than 200,000,000 passengers and has become an indispensable boon for citizens of the two cities. However, visitors are not the only ones that benefit from the intercity railway. This line has greatly stimulated the vitality of local economy.
Wuqing Station is between Beijing South Railway Station and Tianjin Station, and it takes only 20 minutes from there to Beijing. In 2008, there were only eight scheduled pairs of train coming and leaving Wuqing station each day, but now there are 23. Accordingly, the average number of passengers surged from 366 to more than 10,000 every day. The intercity railway brought opportunities to local businesses. Nowadays, lots of people in Beijing choose to go shopping in Wuqing on weekends, because there is a boutique mall Florentia Village there where you can find all kinds of luxury items with discounts all year long.
Commute to Beijing
Three years ago, G9001 and G9002 started to run between Beijing and Langfang in Hebei Province, providing great convenience for people living in Langfang and working in Beijing. The length of the tracks is only 60 kilometers, making it the shortest route among China's high speed railways.
A man surnamed Li takes the train every day. In the morning, he walks for five minutes from home to the railway station, and takes the 21-minute G9002 from Langfang to Beijing. He then transfers by subway to Sanyuanqiao Station. Li calculates that the train-subway route saves a quarter of the time that driving to work would take, since the route is often clogged with traffic congestion.
Convenient cross-city commuting allows people to live in their hometown and work in Beijing. Nowadays, there are 10 pairs of trains running from other cities to Beijing, Tianjin or Shijiazhuang before 8 am and then back after 9 pm, creating a one-hour living and working radius in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.
From Beijing to Xiong'an
On July 6, two pairs of through trains started running between Beijing South Railway Station and Baoding Station started stopping at stations in Baigou and Baiyangdian in Xiong'an New Area. This new route is suitable for one-day or weekend trips for recreation or work, shortening the distance between the capital and the new area.
Fast lane to Winter Olympics
Alongside the Great Wall, construction is underway on a tunnel that is part of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is 174 kilometers long, with 71 kilometers of the route in Beijing. It will serve as one of the major supporting transportation routes for the 2022 Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Games. The route will also be an important part of the passage from Beijing to Lanzhou, as part of national railway network that will crisscross the nation.
In May 2017, 130 kilometers of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was complete. The construction of several key projects such as the Tsinghua University Tunnel, New Badaling Tunnel and Guanting Reservoir Bridge is going smoothly.
Speed record
In September 2017, seven pairs of Rejuvenation EMU trains on Beijing-Shanghai routes will accelerate their speed to 350 kilometers per hour, making China first in the world in terms of railway speed.
The new trains will shorten the travel time from Beijing to Shanghai to only 4.5 hours. The new trains started selling tickets on August 23 and will run in September.
