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

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