China High-Speed Railway Railcar System

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is expected to carry the world's heaviest volume of transportation traffic in the future. This means it will be necessary to build a system that will ensure sufficient transportation capacity. Planning must not be lulled into complacency by capacity demands in the initial period but must take into consideration adequate capacity to expand in the future. Train seating capacity and the number of trains in operation will determine transportation capacity. Limits on the number of trains in operation, however, will arise from factors such as maximum speed and acceleration and deceleration performance. In addition, the number and location of diamond crossings for intermediate-speed trains will place large restrictions on the number of high-speed trains in operation. Measures to establish passenger capacity at the maximum limit will therefore be the deciding factor for ensuring sufficient transportation capacity. Maximizing train passenger capacity is equivalent to ensuring the maximum available space for passenger use. Alternatives that may be considered as measures to increase the space available for passenger use are expansion of train length, expansion of car body width, expansion of car body height upward or downward, and provision for compact, efficient placement of railcar equipment. Steps to implement these options include increasing train coupling length, increasing the number of seats to five individuals abreast across the width of the car body, and building railcars with upper and lower double decks. To make passenger compartment facilities compact and efficient the passenger compartment can be extended to the front of the cars by dispersing the drive controls and drive system, making it smaller and placing it below the passenger compartment floor. Finally, by using trains with a fixed number of carriages the seating area for passenger use can be increased by compact, balanced placement of toilets, washrooms, special purpose facilities and other accoutrements for each train as a whole.