China's First Driverless Subway Line Opens

[marmar]

via MassTransitMag:



Qiu Quanlin
China Daily, Beijing / Asia News Network


CHINA - China's first automatic metro line, passing southern city Guangzhou's central business district and the Pearl River, has begun its operation in this provincial capital of Guangdong.

The line is dubbed an APM (automated people mover) as all trains running every seven minutes between Chigang Pagoda and Linhexi stations are controlled by a command center instead of drivers.

Emergency and safety equipment inside each carriage enables passengers to contact metro staff if they need assistance.

The stations of Chigang Pagoda and Haixinsha were closed on Monday due to rehearsals of the Asian Games opening ceremony.

The local metro company also said the APM service, which charges 2 yuan (30 cents) for a single trip, will be closed on Nov 12 and 27 due to the opening and closing ceremonies. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=12915

[David__77]

1. Absoutely amazing the progress China has made.

China was a completely agrarian country before the 1920s, and almost completely agrarian until the 1950s. Today, nearly half of Chinese are urbanized, while the figure was around 20% just 40 years ago. There have been very few instances of such rapid economic and social development in world history. The US was another such example at one time.

[The2ndWheel]

2. Even in a country with a billion people

You can still find ways to not need one.