China's new ways to solve its traffic congestion problem are the straddle bus (left) and the sky train (right). (Photo : Twitter)
China has unveiled its very fist sky train, hoping to usher in a new ear for its mass transportation system.
The new elevated railway transport was rolled out by the Nanjing Zhengzhou Company Ltd. in Beijing on Sunday after four months of designing and building, the China Daily reported. The unveiling marks China as the third country after Germany and Japan to adopt sky train technology for commercial use.
The sky train is a type of suspended railway system designed to be fully automated and not need a driver for operation. Each train has two compartments that can carry 200 passengers and has been made for ease of boarding and alighting.
However, according to Beijing Jiaotong Institution professor Yue Zhaohong, the biggest advantage of the sky train system is its relatively low cost and faster development time compared to trains and other rail-based transportation systems.
Yue said that developing a network of sky train rails would be much faster than those for regular trains, being able to lay down several dozen kilometers of tracks in just three to five months. He also notes that the system is more cost effective than current ones.
The sky train uses batteries to propel itself, which last for four to five hours. While the batteries can only be changed at the stations, the process takes only two minutes, avoiding any interruptions in operation, Technitab reported.
Experts said that the sky train would be a good option for transporting visitors in tourists spots, as well as a general mass transportation system for third and fourth tier cities. The new rail system is expected to debut for public use by 2017.
China has been looking out for new ways to ease massive traffic jams in its major cities. In 2013, the government of the city of Shanghai said that it was considering the installation of a monorail system to solve its traffic problem by 2015. However, the plan was eventually pushed back, with the city unveiling a model of the proposed monorail this year.
