First China-made driverless metro starts operation in Hong Kong

World
Europe

Hong Kong residents and railway enthusiasts flocked to South Horizons station as early as 5 a.m. on Wednesday to be the first passengers aboard the first ever China-made driverless metro trains.

Passengers board the South Island Line at Admiralty Station on December 28, 2016. /CCTV Photo

The 7-kilometer-long South Island Line is Hong Kong’s first brand new metro line to be open in over a decade after the launching of the Disneyland Resort Line in 2005. It connects Admiralty to South Horizons and passes through Ocean Park.

“I'm so excited to be on the first train of this line. It brings much convenience. I no longer need to suffer the tunnel traffic and can go to work faster. And it's much easier to get to the Ocean Park now,” said one passenger.

“I've been waiting for this new line for a long time. Today I got up early to try this new train and go around on my own,” said another passenger.

The South Island Line runs from Admiralty to South Horizons, passing through Ocean Park and two other stops in between. /CCTV Photo

10 three-carriage trains run on the line, which is Hong Kong's third driverless metro line after the Airport Express and the Disneyland Resort Line.

The core technology and the carriages were domestically developed and produced by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. With no driver onboard, the vehicle control center monitors and controls the carriages through a closed circuit television system.

Signs show ways to the South Island Line at a metro station. /CCTV Photo

“This train is totally automatic. The train doors, platform screen doors, and the running of the train, as well as its cleaning are all automated. So we need very few staff on board. We do have two control panels on each end of the trains that can be manually activated in extreme cases,” remarked Au Tse-hin, a Hong Kong MTR staff.

The first driverless train of the fleet was produced at a factory in Hong Kong on March this year.

The new line is expected to serve 170,000 passengers a day. Through this extended interchange at Admiralty station, it is linked to the rest of the city’s MTR network, making daily commutes easier and faster.

Driverless trains started to emerge in Japan and France in early 1980s. Meanwhile, China's self-developed technologies began to mature in recent years and CRRC Sifang Co, a subsidiary of the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, has already exported its driverless trains to Singapore.

(Reported by CCTV's Mao Dan)