CHINA: An array of domestically-produced rail technology was shown at two major trade fairs held in Beijing in July.
More than 2 000 Chinese and international officials and 200 rail specialists participated in the latest edition of the World Congress on High Speed Rail, jointly hosted by the International Union of Railways and China Railway on July 8-11. The congress took place under the banner ‘High Speed Rail: Innovative Development for a Better Life’. Attendees came from more than 60 countries, and the opening ceremony was officiated by Vice Premier of the State Council, Zhang Guoqing.
‘In less than two decades, China has created the largest and most advanced high speed rail system in the world, reshaping mobility, the economy and regional development’, UIC Chairman Alan Beroud said during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony.
During the conference, two round-table forums and 30 technical exchange meetings were held. More than 200 railway executives, technical specialists and researchers from various countries presented snapshots of their work in the field of high speed railways. The conference received more than 700 papers from 27 countries, regions and international organisations. During the conference, China Railway signed cooperation agreements with rail bodies in France, Spain, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Laos and Malaysia, among others.
Alongside the congress, a series of technical visits and innovation session were held with the aim of ‘spreading high speed rail culture and building a bridge for exchanges and mutual learning’, according to local reports.
Parallel events
On the same dates, the 17th China International Modern Railway Technology & Equipment Exhibition was also taking place in Beijing. The exhibition attracted 521 companies from 14 territories, and featured major installations from rail suppliers including CRRC, CHN Energy, Huawei, Siemens, Alstom, Knorr-Bremse, and Vossloh; the show covered an area of approximately 40 000 m². Among the highlights on show were intelligent railway inspection drones, and an example of the latest CR450 Fuxing high speed trainset.
In total, the CRRC group exhibited 22 vehicles. A highlight among them came courtesy of CRRC Changchun, which displayed the end car of a 600 km/h prototype maglev trainset. This uses superconducting electrodynamic suspension technology, and features a high-strength aluminium and carbon fibre body, offering, which CRRC says offers ‘an optimal balance between strength, stiffness, modal stability, and structural weight’.
Visitors were shown laboratories for researching pantograph-contact wire and wheel-rail interaction, while new products for braking mechanisms, AC drives, wheel wear monitoring, and remote condition monitoring were on display. A key theme was the potential benefits of deploying 5G telecoms in rail and metro applications.
Ridership record
The exhibitions took place against a backdrop of ongoing growth in Chinese rail use. The country currently has 48 000 km of high speed railway, equivalent to 70% of the global total. This network of Passenger-Dedicated Lines now serves 97% of population centres with more than 500 000 inhabitants, the national railway reports.
The national network carried a record number of passengers in H1 2025, with 2∙24 billion journeys completed. This is a 6∙7% increase from the same period last year, according to data released by China Railway Group. During the six-month period, an average of 11 183 trains operated every day, up 7∙5% year-on-year.
