International Railway Journal - July 2008 - (Page 36)

China 10-minute intervals, and the speed will be restricted to 300km/h. Two types of service will be operated on the new line: long-distance highspeed services using the 350km/h CRH3 and 300km/h CRH2 trains, and medium-distance shuttles using 250km/h trains. CRH stands for China Railway Highspeed train. CRH3 is produced by Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company (TRC) in partnership with Siemens (see following article), and CRH2 is produced by Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock in Qingdao with technical cooperation from Kawasaki, Japan. Both trains are being tested on the Beijing Tianjin line, prior to entering service on this line next month. The Ministry of Railways has decided that 10% of the equipment for the project will be imported from overseas, such as the signalling system, 20% will Max Bögl develops slab track switch The cost of the Beijing Shanghai high-speed line is now estimated at $US 32 billion. be imported and assembled in China, and 70% will be developed and produced in China. The total cost of building the Beijing Shanghai high-speed line has doubled and doubled again during the last 15 years, because of hikes in the cost of labour, construction materials, and in particular land in the cities. According to the current plan, the cost of the project is estimated at Yuan 220 billion ($US 32 billion). One of the biggest elements of the total cost is the construction of Shanghai Hongqiao station, which accounts for about 7% of the total investment. A new state-owned company called Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway (BSHSR) has been set up to raise capital for the project, and BSHSR has raised Yuan 110 billion so far. The rest of the funds will come from local governments along the route, share offerings, bank loans, and foreign investment. This is the first time China will allow foreign investors to put money into a railway project. It is expected the whole project will be finished and put into operation by 2013. But the 357.5km section between Nanjing and Shanghai could be finished by 2010 in time for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the next big event to be staged in China. IRJ S LAB track is now a wellestablished alternative for highspeed plain track, but until recently, installation of high-speed switches has been limited by the size of the slabs required, making preassembly difficult. When Max Bögl, Germany, was developing its modular slab track system, a number of challenges had to be resolved to come up with switch design, writes Dipl-Ing Stefan Bögl, of Max Bögl. The general objective for the slab track switch project was to produce a slab of maximum possible length to minimise the number of coupling points. Furthermore, we did not want to modify the structural cross-section to ensure the same level of stiffness for the switch track as for plain track. The design of the slabs was limited to transportable sizes, and mechanical and electrical facilities to operate the switch had to be taken into consideration. Construction and geometry requirements meant that the longitudinal joint of the slabs with standard Bögl slab track had to be altered. The longitudinal joint was loosened by means of reinforcing bars in the 18cm supporting plate. A particular feature of a Bögl slab track plate is the precisely-tailored production of the switch fastening, which can be realeased either by plug-in connections or adhesive anchors. A precision template or CNC jig-boring machine makes a replica of the switch fastening boreholes to within 0.5mm of the design specification. In the third quarter of 2006, in cooperation with BWG, the 15m-long core element of the demonstration switch (EW60 3000/1500/oo-1:23,735r) was successfully installed on a gradient of 1:40 on Bögl’s premises. The demonstration switch was approved by Germany’s Federal Railway Agency (EBA). This laid the foundation for installation on China’s 115km Beijing - Tianjin high-speed line, where two switches have now been installed. Using Bögl slab track switches offers the possibility of greater consistency and quality of installation. The benefits are significant: the switch is clean at the time of installation, which means that there is less susceptibility to failure the risk of damaging the switch during installation is reduced the switch is easy to replace, by simply replacing identical steel components in the track bed there is no need to replace the track superstructure when replacing the switch it saves time when installing, removing or renewing the switch, and it offers very precise rail placement, enhancing ride quality for passengers. 36 IRJ July 2008

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International Railway Journal - July 2008 Contents This Month News Transit News Market News/Technology News News Analysis Conference Report Korean Railways Face a Bright Future Korean Exports Surge Ahead Ready to Roll in China Velaro Shows Eastern Promise Are You Sitting Comfortably? Compin Meets New Challenges The Fabric of Society Grinding Out a Result Rendezvous Full Contact List The Last Word

International Railway Journal - July 2008

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