Bullet train research gets on track

China Railway Corp, the national rail operator, launched research on a new bullet train on Wednesday in Shanghai.

The new model, which belongs to the Fuxing bullet train family, will be developed mainly based on China's railway standards and technologies. It will travel at the speed of 250 kilometers per hour.

According to the company's blueprint, a series of new bullet train models in the Fuxing family will be developed to adapt to various environments, reducing manufacture and operation costs and improving energy conservation.

Compared with the in-service Harmony bullet trains, the new models use less energy and feature less noise, as well as a longer service life.

Companies including CSR Qingdao Sifang Co Ltd and CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co Ltd have submitted technology designs for the new model.

The Fuxing bullet train, literally translated as "rejuvenation", is a bullet train model China developed on its own and put into operation in September.

The current Fuxing bullet train runs between Beijing and Shanghai at the speed of 350 km per hour, making it world's fastest train service.

According to China Railway Corp, the Fuxing train carried 460,000 passengers on the Beijing-Shanghai line in its first full month of operations at 350 km per hour.

China has the world's largest high-speed rail network, with 22,000 km in operation. About one-third of the country's high-speed railways were designed to run at a speed of 350 km per hour.