Rail technology leader Bombardier Transportation announced that it has signed a Technology Licence Agreement with CSR Puzhen, a subsidiary of the largest player in the railway manufacturing sector in China – China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Ltd (CSR).

Under the agreement, Bombardier provides CSR Puzhen with a 10-year licence to manufacture and sell 100 per cent low-floor trams with Bombardier technology in China (including Hong Kong and Macao).

The licensed product is a variant of the BOMBARDIER FLEXITY 2 platform of vehicles already operating in Blackpool, UK and being delivered to the Gold Coast, Australia. The agreement covers the preparation and delivery of documentation of the licensed product as well as training and assistance for CSR Puzhen’s employees to understand the documentation and enable them to successfully manufacture and sell the licensed product. Bombardier will not actively build vehicles in China, but comprehensively support its new Chinese partner. The vehicles will be equipped with the innovative BOMBARDIER FLEXX Urban 3000 bogies and the BOMBARDIER MITRAC 500 propulsion and control system.

After recent significant achievements in China’s high speed train, locomotive, signaling and metro segments, Bombardier Transportation is now entering the tram market in China through a co-operation with CSR Puzhen. This move supports Bombardier’s strategic drive to grow strong “local roots” in key markets.

“After many years of intense development of metros, Chinese cities are embracing low-floor trams to complement their urban transit systems. Bombardier is now bringing its state-of-the-art technology to this new and growing market,” said Jianwei Zhang, President of Bombardier China.
Germar Wacker, President Light Rail Vehicles, Bombardier Transportation, added: “Our FLEXITY trams combine market-leading experience, proven parts and visionary engineering. We are proud to take this vehicle family to China. This will ensure that passengers in China can enjoy the highest standards in comfort and safety. By providing efficient and ecological transport solutions, Bombardier’s FLEXITY trams shape the identities of modern cities across the globe.”

As the market leader in the tram and light rail vehicle (LRV) segment, Bombardier and its FLEXITY family offer modern mobility solutions to meet the requirements of any city. The most comprehensive portfolio of the industry ranges from 100 per cent low-floor trams and 70 per cent low-floor trams and LRVs to proven dual system solutions.

More than 1,700 FLEXITY trams are already in successful revenue service, and Bombardier has sold more than 1,000 FLEXITY 100 per cent low-floor trams to date. A total of 3,500 trams and light rail vehicles from Bombardier are on order or operating in nearly 100 cities in more than 20 countries around the globe.

Visitors to InnoTrans 2012 can experience the FLEXITY 2 tram, which Bombardier plans to display at the trade show in September in Berlin, Germany.  

Bombardier Inc. is trying a new approach to tapping into China’s rail market – not just building trains, but selling the blueprints.

The Montreal manufacturer struck a 10-year agreement to licence a variant of the technology for its Flexity 2 line of trams to a subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. Ltd., the biggest player in the railway manufacturing sector.
Bombardier has spent years deepening its presence in China. Among higher-profile projects are joint ventures to build super-high-speed trains to the Ministry of Railways as well as deals to provide subway cars to Shanghai and other cities.

“After many years of intense development of metros, Chinese cities are embracing low-floor trams to complement their urban transit systems. Bombardier is now bringing its state-of-the-art technology to this new and growing market,” Jianwei Zhang, president of Bombardier China, said in a news release.

Large high-speed railway opens
 

The Hanyi Railway, a section of a high-speed rail corridor between the eastern metropolis of Shanghai and southwestern city of Chengdu, opened on Sunday.

The 293-km Hanyi Railway links Wuhan and Yichang, two large cities in Central China's Hubei province.

The railway will reduce travel time between the cities to one hour and 39 minutes, said Yang Tao, an official with the Wuhan railway bureau.

The Hanyi Railway is part of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu Railway, an east-west corridor listed in China's national high-speed railway development plan.

The 2,078-km railway will travel though four provinces and two municipalities, connecting the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu.

Most sections of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu Railway are in operation, and construction on the last section is slated to be completed in 2013.  

CHINA: A 293 km Passenger-Dedicated Line between Wuhan and Yichang in Hubei Province opened on July 1.

The Hanyi Railway was built by China Railway 12th Bureau Group, with work getting underway in 2008. There are eight stations, and trains run at up to 200 km/h, with a fastest journey time of 1 h 39 min.

The new line forms a part of the 2078 km Shanghai - Wuhan - Chengdu high speed corridor, which is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Speaking through his assistant, director Zhang Yimou said he was not the director of "Chinese Railway," a controversial promotional video for high-speed railways criticized for terrible standards and a high cost, the Beijing News reports.
 
"Chinese Railway," made for the Railway Ministry for the opening of the 7th World Congress on High-speed Rail in Beijing in December 2010, was recently reported by the National Audit Office to have cost 18.5 million yuan (US$2.9 million) but failed to meet expectations.
 
Pang Liwei, Zhang Yimou's assistant, said on Monday that Zhang did not take part in the shooting for the video and his role was just making some recommendations to the film maker.
 
Pang said the video's production company asked Zhang to direct the video before the downfall of the former Railway Minister Liu Zhijun and Zhang said he would make recommendations but he did not want to be credited as the director. Zhang attended several meetings to give advice, but the final production was very different than what he had recommended, Pang said.
 
As for Internet users' questions about the high fee Zhang received for his role, Pang responded that there was no question that Zhang was paid at a level equal to his status in the international film field.
 

China's Ministry of Railways predicted on Saturday that the country's railways will transport 372 million passengers during the summer travel season this year.

The number of rail passenger trips during this summer's travel season, which starts on July 1 and lasts until August 31, is expected to be 21.65 million more than that of the equivalent period in 2011, according to a statement posted on the ministry's website.

It is estimated that the average daily passenger flow will reach 6 million, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, the statement said.

To ease transportation pressure, the ministry has added 54 pairs of temporary passenger trains nationwide for the period.
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BOMBARDIER has signed an agreement with CSR Puzhen, China, to licence a variant of its Flexity 2 light rail vehicle design. The 10-year licence will allow CSR Puzhen to build and sell 100% low-floor LRVs throughout China.

The Chinese LRVs will be equipped with Bombardier Flexx Urban 3000 bogies and Mitrac 500 propulsion equipment. Bombardier will also provide training and support to CSR Puzhen.

 "After many years of intense development of metros, Chinese cities are embracing low-floor trams to complement their urban transit systems," says Mr Jianwei Zhang, president of Bombardier China. "Bombardier is now bringing its state-of-the-art technology to this new and growing market."

Flexity 2 is Bombardier's latest LRV and made its debut in the British resort of Blackpool last year. Bombardier also has a contract to supply a fleet of Flexity 2 LRVs for the new Gold Coast light rail line currently under construction in the Australian state of Queensland.

IRJ at the UIC 8th World Congress on High Speed Rail, Philadelphia: Mr Zhang Jianping, director general of China's Ministry of Railways, said today that the Beijing - Shanghai high-speed line, which celebrated its first birthday on July 1, has carried 52 million passengers in its first full year operation.

Zhang says this is more than expected and despite the decision to operate trains at a maximum speed of 300km/h rather than the design speed of 380km/h envisaged prior to the Wenzhou accident last year.

According to Zhang, daily fares revenue on the 1318km line is around Yuan 60m ($US 9.4m).

Zhang also confirmed to IRJ that the 1125km Beijing - Wuhan line will open in two stages in October and December.

The Hanyi Railway, a section of a major high-speed rail corridor between the eastern metropolis of Shanghai and southwest China’s city of Chengdu, opened Sunday.

The 293-km Hanyi Railway links Wuhan and Yichang, 2 large cities in central China’s Hubei province. The railway will reduce travel time between the cities to 1 hr, 39 mins, said Yang Tao, an official with the Wuhan railway bureau.

The Hanyi Railway is part of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu Railway, or Huhanrong Railway, a major east-west high-speed rail corridor outlined in China’s national high-speed railway development plan.

The 2,078-km railway will travel though four provinces and two municipalities, connecting the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu.

Most sections of the Huhanrong Railway are in operation, with construction on the last section slated to be completed in Y 2013.

The Shenzhen Metro said on July 6 that it has no plans to set up VIP compartments on a new subway line.

A report by the Southern Metropolis Daily on Friday said that the Shenzhen Metro was planning to set up VIP compartments on line 11, which is now under construction.

The report said the trains operating on the line would have two more compartments with no standing space but with tickets costing twice as much.

The news caught public attention, with many questioning if it would be appropriate to set different price brackets for public transportation, especially in the subway, which is normally very crowded during peak times.

An online survey on news portal Sina , with the participation of more than 2,000 netizens by 5 pm on July 6, showed that 65.3 percent believed it's not appropriate to set VIP compartments, while 23.8 percent of the respondents supported more variety of choices.

Chen Qi, deputy manager of the operating company of the Shenzhen Metro, said that that the company is not planning to set up VIP compartments but what they call "special compartments".

"Line 11 is from downtown to the airport, like an airport express, so it won't be very crowded," he said.

"Trains for that line will have eight compartments, instead of six, so we plan to make two compartments special, on which we won't sell standing tickets. This is to meet the demands of high-end customers," he said.

He added that Hong Kong has similar arrangements on a train line run by the MTR Corp, which has a first class compartment.

He said the "special compartments" will only be put in place on line 11 "since it's a special line" and would not be expanded to other lines.

Chen said the construction of line 11 has just started and will be finished in 2016. Ticket prices are not finalized yet.

According to Shenzhen Metro, the current five subway lines in Shenzhen carry daily 2.07 million passengers on average.

Shenzhen's new subway line 11 will offer VIP tickets to passengers that guarantees a seat for double the normal price, Southern Metropolis Daily reported Friday.

"We are trying to make public transportation meet a higher level of service," said Zhao Penglin, deputy secretary general of Zhenzhen municipal government, at the Shenzhen-Hongkong Subway Economic Circle Summit on July 5.

"By providing seat tickets to passengers, especially travelers from other places, a more comfortable journey can be enjoyed," Zhao said.

But some passengers remain skeptical about the VIP service.

"I will consider the VIP ticket if it is not expensive," said a Shenzhen woman surnamed Huang, "It's crowded in rush hour, making it difficult to stand without a seat from the Laojie station to the airport for 40 to 50 minutes, and I am willing to pay more for the ticket for comfort."

A worker surnamed Lin said, "I go to work by underground on weekdays, and it's a little expensive to spend double the price on a VIP ticket.".

The new line is expected to open in 2016.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced Thursday it would cut the benchmark interest rate for one-year deposits by 25 basis points on Friday, stepping up China's stimulus measures to spur its slowing economy.

The benchmark one-year lending rate will also be lowered by 31 basis points on Friday, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

It is the second time China's central bank has cut the benchmark rates this year after a 25-basis-point cut in interest rates on June 7.

The PBOC said in the statement that it will allow banks to offer 30 percent discount to borrowers, larger than the previous 20 percent, but the lower limit of the floating band of mortgage loan interests will remain unchanged.

"Banking institutions should continue to strictly implement the differentiated housing loans policy and continue to curb speculative home purchases," the PBOC said in the statement.

After the latest cut, the one-year deposit interest rate will fall to 3 percent while the one-year loan interest rate will be lowered to 6 percent.

The upper limit of the floating band of deposit rates was previously adjusted to 1.1 times the benchmark.

The surprise rate cuts came at a time when many economists fear the world's second-largest economy will slow further in the second quarter.

The latest rate cut took analysts by surprise as the PBOC was expected to cut the banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) this month, and an interest rate cut is viewed to be more forceful than an RRR adjustment.

"It was asymmetric cuts in borrowing and lending rates again," said Li Xunlei, chief economist for Haitong Securities, in his flash comments on his microblog. "The PBOC aims to stimulate domestic consumption while transferring the banks' profits to the real economy."

"I believe policymakers have more room in loosening monetary policy than fiscal policy," he said.

"The rate cuts (this year) came a little bit earlier than what the market expected," said Li Huiyong, chief macroeconomic analyst for Shenyin & Wanguo Securities. "I think a declining inflation level gives more room for lowering the interest rates and it reflects that economic growth is not looking that good in the second quarter."

China's gross domestic product slowed to a nearly three-year low of 8.1 percent in the first quarter and key economic indicators for June continue to suggest downward risks.

The National Bureau of Statistics has yet to release a string of economic data, including the GDP, for the second quarter and the consumer price index, next week. 

China's growing wealth gap has been thrust into the spotlight by a reports that a new subway in Shenzhen, a city of 10 million located near Hong Kong, will soon feature "VIP" carriages.

Southern Metropolitan Daily reported this week that two carriages out of eight on one line will cost around twice the price of a normal ticket, and will have larger areas for luggage and no space for standing. The plan is to meet "different passengers' demands", an official said.

The news (predictably) sent a ripple though Weibo, with many users unhappy about what looks like a move towards economic segregation, WSJ reports. “The government should make efforts to prevent the subway from breaking down, instead of creating a haven for rich people,” one Weibo user posted.

However, the deputy manager of the Shenzhen subway has attempted to clarify the plan today, and has been keen to not use the word "VIP", instead preferring "special compartments".

"Line 11 is from downtown to the airport, like an airport express, so it won't be very crowded," Chen Qi said, according to China Daily.

"Trains for that line will have eight compartments, instead of six, so we plan to make two compartments special, on which we won't sell standing tickets. This is to meet the demands of high-end customers," he said.