high-speed train reaching a speed of 486.1 kph in a test run stole the limelight at the Seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing last week.

    Built by the Qingdao Sifang Co. of China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co, the CRH380A reached the record speed in trial on the high-speed line linking Bejing and Shanghai.

    Located in the northwest corner of Qingdao, Sifang is China’s high-speed train manufacturing base. It has an annual production capacity of 200 high-speed train units, 1,000 mass transit vehicles and 300 diesel multiple units, according to company president Jiang Jing.

    It was capable of repairing 120 high-speed train units a year

    The company has acquired about 300 patents with full intellectual property rights in the research and development of high-speed trains since it introduced foreign technology to develop a 200 km/h train five years ago.

    More than six percent of the company’s sales income since 2007 had been invested in research and development.

    The company also has a national engineering laboratory for high speed trains.

    The laboratory has five experimental platforms covering vibration, air impermeability in train bodies and components.

    The company also houses a national technology center and a post-doctorate research center and has developed and produced five high-speed train units, the CRH2A, CRH2B, CRH2C, CRH2E and the CRH380A. These are being used on more than 90 percent of China’s high speed rail lines.

    The company is also the source of about 70 percent of the country’s high-speed train units.

    With heavy demand for high-speed train spare parts, a large number of innovative high-speed train spare part enterprises have established themselves in Qingdao.

    There are more than 20 leading enterprises producing high-speed train spare parts. These have established cooperation with Sifang for innovation in the industry.(Martin Li, Lin Gang)