Excursus: ART, Yibin

On the 5th December, a middle-sized city situated in Sichuan, Yibin, celebrated the inauguration of the city's first urban rail line branded as ART or Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (Wikipedia), China's take on the next generation transportation system. 


Ever since the completion of the prototype in 2017 and the subsequent construction of a trial line in the very city it was born —— Zhuzhou to be exact —— the project aims to serve as an exemplar to alleviate traffic congestions within a city with a population of roughly 4.5 million. Free trial service had commenced as early as June this year and successfully attracted considerable amounts of passengers.

Imagine trolling thorough the city riding one of these "trains".

Brief route map. The shadowed areas represent major hubs or residential/financial centres.

The ART line, currently operated as T1 and its branch line, starts at the High Speed Railway station on the west, heads straight to the main shopping malls (the local "Times Square") before crossing the Yangtze River and terminating at an industrial park. The branch line heads for a university campus.


Train near Changjiang Bridge South station.

Route map inside the station. The branch line branches off at Changcui Road station and heads northwest towards Sichuan University of Science and Engineering (red on the map).
*Editor: I appologize but this is the best quality I can get...


Changcui Road station where the two lines meet.

Now, shall we get a look inside?



Trivia
As you might have noticed, the "trains" (essentially tram shaped articulated buses) have no overhead lines nor third rails (There is actually no rail at all —— the "rails" are white dotted lines painted on the ground, see below), which means that they can only be powered by batteries. Charging stations as below are found at the termini where the batteries get reloaded.



(According to Wikipedia, The ART is equipped with various sensors to assist the driver in following the route on a virtual track, or to make detours in the case of traffic jams.)

Comments

  1. Robert Schwandl17 December 2019 at 12:25

    Interesting system - the optical guidance system has been used for example in France for many years on bus systems.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Special Guided Tour, Act III: In Macau (Linha da Taipa)

Image
Welcome to our special guided tour. Today we'll take you into the first railway transit line of this former Portuguese colony and the world-famous gambling city, though please bear in mind that gambling isn't included in our official plan.  Please make sure to follow me tightly throughout the whole journey. A bite of Macau: Venetian and Galaxy Macau in the background, both renowned casino resorts. Our bus will be entering the checkpoint through the nearby city of Zhuhai and head straight for the Taipa island on which the trains currently circulate, well Cotai to be exact. One-minute geography: The city of Macau consists of Macau Peninsula and the islands of Taipa and Coloane (Taipa is the result of an artificial landfill), with Taipa being the city centre hosting most of the casinos. Today we will be coming through the Lotus Bridge. You're not having hallucinations, but we're actually standing in Macau and in front of the Parisian hotel w
Read more

【速報】Pudong APM

Image
The largest single satellite terminal in the world... and the newest. Two of them are now in Shanghai's Pudong Airport, with two separate APM lines linking them to the previously established terminals T1 and T2. Two APM lines inside the Pudong Int'l Aiport are announced to be opened on the 16th September . Once opened, Pudong will become the first airport to be equipped with a steel-wheeled airside transit system.  The official promotion video. It is operated by 4 car automated trains shuttling every 5 minutes in a 2'30'' journey. Checking in at this airport can get more than tricky here: Passengers with the letter G or H on the boarding pass need to take the train to the satellite terminal for their flights after the security check, whereas passengers arriving at the satellite terminals will have to be transported to the main terminal for their luaggage claim. First stop after arriving at the satellite terminal.  You can immagine how y
Read more

Suzhou M3

Image
Breaking News! I declare hereby that line 3 in Suzhou  is now in service on  the  25th December ! A 48 second trailer for our advanced screening - . The Chamber 1  of our metro gallery is currently unter a special exhibition entitled "SSR". Access available here . I'm so much obliged to have the honour to mark the line on the list.
Read more