Know the joke, “What’s the happiest city’s in Anhui?” “Wuuu Huuu!”. Those contented citizens now have another reason to be cheerful, with the opening of a driverless monorail line that shall speed those smiling faces around on trains that were built here in Nanjing.
On 3 November, the nearby city of Wuhu in Anhui Province, that is just across the border from Nanjing, inaugurated its first straddle-beam monorail line that is part of the Wuhu Urban Rail Transit (WRT) system.
The line, that is 30·5 kilometres long, runs in a north-south direction, between Baoshun Lu and Baima Shan. There are 25 stations en route.
Together with its trains, the line was built by CRRC Puzhen Bombardier Transportation Systems that is a joint venture between Bombardier Transportation and CRRC Nanjing Puzhen.
The Nanjing plant has also built metro trains for city networks in many parts of China, and farther afield too, including Mumbai in India and Bangkok in Thailand.
Back in Wuhu, and to qualify the term “driverless”, the trains on the new Wuhu network are capable of fully automatic operation, also known as GoA4, in which trains can operate without human assistance at all times, while also being able to open and close doors, detect obstacles and react to emergencies.
Before going into full operation last week, the trains got a thorough trial beginning in September, in which 10,000 happy passengers per week were invited to come and test the line for free.
Jianwei Zhang, President of Alstom China, said, “Wuhu’s new fully automated and driverless elevated monorail will be a game changer for residents, decreasing their commute time while also reducing congestion, pollution and carbon emissions in the city”, reports Railway Gazette.
The new line, WRT Kine 1, is the first of that which is envisaged to one day be a nine-line network for the happy city. And next, Phase 1 of Line 2 that is expected to open by year end will give Wuhu residents one more reason to have a smile on their faces.
