Robo-trains given human touch
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Mure Dickie
CHINA has taken an unusual step in preparation for the opening of its first "driverless" automated mass transit rail line - by hiring drivers.
The Financial Times has discovered that more than 70 trainee drivers - all male, under-25, with good reflexes and conversational English - have begun training to work on the 28km link between Beijing airport and Dongzhimen station, close to the city centre.
"Recruitment of drivers for the airport line has already been completed," said Jia Peng, from Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation, which will run the link.
The decision to hire drivers for a line designed not to use them suggests that some in Beijing's vast bureaucracy may be having difficulty keeping up with the breakneck pace of construction of new infrastructure before the Olympics next August.
It also highlights the potential pitfalls of having separate state-owned companies take responsibility for the construction and operation of its mass transit lines.
Asked why drivers were being hired, Mr Jia said that even automated train systems might still need to be manually operated and monitored and that drivers might be required to open and close carriage doors.
However, he said the question of whether the airport line was driverless should be directed at the builders of the line. "We've not taken over management yet, so we don't know what their definition is," said Mr Jia. "We don't get involved."
An official of Beijing Dongzhimen Airport Express Rail, the company responsible for constructing the link, said the trains - being built in China using technology from the Canadian company Bombardier - were fully automatic.
Told that Beijing Mass Transit was hiring drivers, the official, who declined to be named, said: "We don't know what their thinking is. We don't interfere in their final operational issues."
For Bombardier, the $44m (€30m, £21.5m) contract for 40 advanced ART MK II carriages to run on the airport line marks an opportunity to showcase its driverless technology in China, a hugely important market.
Zhang Jianwei, Bombardier's chief country representative, insisted its trains would be up to the task of travelling between the line's four stations without human assistance.
"A driverless train does not need a driver," said Mr Zhang.
However, he acknowledged that the design of the Beijing carriages had been altered at additional cost to include a driver's compartment - a change Bombardier was happy to make. "We do whatever the operators want," he said.
An official of the Beijing Mass Transit subsidiary that is training the drivers insisted they would have a job to play but declined to give details. "It's a secret for the moment," he said. "We'll talk about it when the time comes."
.................................
Under syndication
arrangement with FE
CHINA has taken an unusual step in preparation for the opening of its first "driverless" automated mass transit rail line - by hiring drivers.
The Financial Times has discovered that more than 70 trainee drivers - all male, under-25, with good reflexes and conversational English - have begun training to work on the 28km link between Beijing airport and Dongzhimen station, close to the city centre.
"Recruitment of drivers for the airport line has already been completed," said Jia Peng, from Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation, which will run the link.
The decision to hire drivers for a line designed not to use them suggests that some in Beijing's vast bureaucracy may be having difficulty keeping up with the breakneck pace of construction of new infrastructure before the Olympics next August.
It also highlights the potential pitfalls of having separate state-owned companies take responsibility for the construction and operation of its mass transit lines.
Asked why drivers were being hired, Mr Jia said that even automated train systems might still need to be manually operated and monitored and that drivers might be required to open and close carriage doors.
However, he said the question of whether the airport line was driverless should be directed at the builders of the line. "We've not taken over management yet, so we don't know what their definition is," said Mr Jia. "We don't get involved."
An official of Beijing Dongzhimen Airport Express Rail, the company responsible for constructing the link, said the trains - being built in China using technology from the Canadian company Bombardier - were fully automatic.
Told that Beijing Mass Transit was hiring drivers, the official, who declined to be named, said: "We don't know what their thinking is. We don't interfere in their final operational issues."
For Bombardier, the $44m (€30m, £21.5m) contract for 40 advanced ART MK II carriages to run on the airport line marks an opportunity to showcase its driverless technology in China, a hugely important market.
Zhang Jianwei, Bombardier's chief country representative, insisted its trains would be up to the task of travelling between the line's four stations without human assistance.
"A driverless train does not need a driver," said Mr Zhang.
However, he acknowledged that the design of the Beijing carriages had been altered at additional cost to include a driver's compartment - a change Bombardier was happy to make. "We do whatever the operators want," he said.
An official of the Beijing Mass Transit subsidiary that is training the drivers insisted they would have a job to play but declined to give details. "It's a secret for the moment," he said. "We'll talk about it when the time comes."
.................................
Under syndication
arrangement with FE