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Maglev train test successful

CHENGDU (CHINA): China on Sunday successfully tested a low-to medium-speed magnetic levitation train, the first domestically developed one in the country, in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The test maglev train is 11.2 metres long, 2.6 metres wide and 3.3 metres high. It ran steadily on a 425-metre-long experimental line in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

``The successful test of the train shows that China has mastered the technology of low-to medium-speed maglev trains,'' said Zhang Kunlun, deputy director of the School of Electrical Engineering of the Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu.

The maglev train was developed by a maglev research team of the university, one of China's key engineering universities.

The cost of the train is low, and is suitable for urban traffic, Mr. Zhang said. With a weight of 18 tonnes, the test train can carry 60 persons. It can travel at speeds of up to 160 kmph.

China is expected to build a 175-km maglev railway this year between Shanghai, the country's largest metropolis, and Hangzhou, a famous tourist destination and capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

— Xinhua

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