- Beijing has unveiled a spanking new
driverless bullet train called the Fuxing. - The train will ferry passengers to and from Olympic venues in Beijing and Zhangjiakou at speeds of 217 miles per hour.
The driverless Fuxing bullet train travels at speeds of 217 miles per hour and can carry 564 passengers per trip in its eight carriages. It is being put on the tracks just in time for the Beijing Games, to ferry passengers along the 108-mile journey between the Chinese capital and satellite venues in the city of Zhangjiakou,
According to the state-linked Xinhua
—China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 6, 2022
Xinhua reported that the train would take just 50 minutes to move its passengers from Beijing's downtown district to the Olympic venues in Zhangjiakou, down from three hours via a regular express train.
Construction on the railway began in 2018, per state-linked media outlet CGTN. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou connection was completed in 2019.
A separate Xinhua video tour of the train's interior also showed special lockers where athletes taking the train can stow their ski equipment.
"To have so much advanced technology brought together on this train, and to present it in front of the world, this shows China's comprehensive strengths in terms of the train system," Zhu Yan, deputy director with at the train's maker, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., told the state-linked Global Times on Thursday.
The Beijing Olympic Games are set to kick off on February 4, 2022. The country plans to implement a "closed-loop" bubble, where athletes, officials, broadcasters, and journalists alike will be able to move only within designated locales.