CRRC: Courageously Serving as the “Locomotive” Advancing China’s Modernization

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, “Fuxing” EMUs climb to the “Roof of the World,” where vast snowy plains and towering Kunlun Mountains bear witness to the development of China’s railway modernization. In the “Land of a Thousand Islands,” the steel dragon winding through mountains and waters on Java Island—the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway—has polished China’s high-speed rail’s golden name card, compressing travel time from Jakarta to Bandung from 3.5 hours to 40 minutes…

With wind as speed and rails as measure, what is written is the accumulation of breakthrough innovations in China’s high-speed rail, witnessing China’s leap from following and running alongside to leading, and upgrading from product export to technology export.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. (CRRC) stated that railways, as the arteries of the national economy and critical infrastructure, highly integrate numerous cutting-edge technologies and constitute one of the important pioneering fields for cultivating new productive forces. CRRC unswervingly places sci-tech innovation at the core of corporate strategy, cultivates and strengthens new productive forces, pursues high-quality development, and courageously serves as the “locomotive” advancing China’s modernization.

Grasping Development Lifelines in Our Own Hands

Sun Yongcai introduced that CRRC adheres to the principle of “national needs first, industry development first,” insists on independent innovation, open innovation, and collaborative innovation, and realizes both “CRRC Creation” and “China Creation.”

CRRC actively builds an origin of original technologies, deploying foundational, urgent, frontier, and disruptive technologies to grasp development lifelines in our own hands. The development of the 350 km/h Fuxing EMU is a typical case. From R&D launch to final configuration, it took five years, undergoing 503 simulation calculations, 5,278 ground tests, and 2,362 line tests. Among the 254 key standards adopted for the EMU, Chinese standards account for 84%; 11 systems and 96 types of major equipment have achieved unified Chinese standards and models. Since then, China has become an important rule-maker for new competitions and an important leader in new competition arenas.

Green is the foundation and characteristic of CRRC’s innovative development. CRRC unswervingly follows the path of ecological priority and green development, striving to be a leader in green manufacturing, a demonstrator of green transportation, a creator of green living, and a pioneer in green development, helping build a beautiful China.

Focusing on green technologies, CRRC accelerates research and application of low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies to comprehensively save energy, reduce consumption, and cut emissions. When the Fuxing EMU operates at 350 km/h, its per capita energy consumption is only 3.64 kWh per 100 kilometers, equivalent to 1/4 of passenger aircraft, 1/6 of sedans, and 1/3 of large buses. The permanent magnet traction system can achieve up to 30% energy savings. Calculated based on a 30% reduction in total train energy consumption, a metro train can reduce emissions by 1,000 kg of CO₂ and 3 kg of SO₂ daily, saving approximately 400,000 kWh of electricity annually. The green emission reduction effect is equivalent to planting 10,000 square meters of broadleaf forest. Green products such as hydrogen energy locomotives, hydrogen energy trams, and hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotives have truly achieved “zero emissions.”

Leading the Entire Industrial Chain into the “Digital Era”

Developing new productive forces must rely on digital-intelligent transformation to enable various production factors to function effectively, improve efficiency, and optimize combinations. Currently, digital-intelligent transformation has become CRRC’s responsive posture amid the major trend of deep integration between digital technology and the real economy.

CRRC vigorously promotes industrial digitization and digital industrialization. Product intelligence has become a new feature of the “national name card,” industrial digitization has become a new identity for the rail transit equipment industry, and smart mobility has become a new experience for people’s travel. Through its own digital-intelligent transformation, CRRC continuously empowers the ecologicalization of the industrial system, leading the entire industrial chain into the “digital era.”

Accelerating Integration of Digital Intelligence and Innovation. Grasping the direction of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, CRRC vigorously promotes integrated innovation of technologies such as big data, cloud computing, 5G communication, and artificial intelligence, accelerating product iteration and upgrades. On January 6, 2022, the “Rui Xue Ying Chun” intelligent Fuxing EMU officially entered service, being the first to apply China’s independently developed BeiDou satellite navigation system, achieving autonomous driving at 350 km/h, and realizing advanced functions such as intelligent train operation, intelligent services, and intelligent operation & maintenance, earning the reputation of “Pride of Domestic Products.” During the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Olympic athletes competed for national glory on the field, while off the field, “Rui Xue Ying Chun” showcased to the world China’s rail transit equipment development achievements.

Accelerating Integration of Digital Intelligence and Business. Relying on digital technology to empower value creation, CRRC continuously explores new models, new formats, and new drivers. It insists on building a value creation model, product life-cycle service architecture, and system solutions based on digitalization, intelligence, and greenization, achieving integrated development of products, spare parts, maintenance, and services, and an integrated layout of design, investment, construction, and operation.

Accelerating Integration of Digital Intelligence and Industry. CRRC strengthens data infrastructure construction, focuses on improving data storage, computing, analysis, and governance capabilities, and builds a digital-intelligence ecosystem for upstream, midstream, and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain. The Product Health Management Service System is the “onboard doctor” for China’s rail transit equipment. Relying on big data analysis technology, it enables dynamic collection, intelligent analysis, and fault warning of train operation data, connecting over 4,000 high-speed EMUs, with equipment fault warning accuracy exceeding 90%, and driving technology upgrades in industrial chain enterprises.

Building a Modern Industrial System Through Enterprise-Led Chain Development

As China’s only rail transit equipment industrialization group and the “chain leader” of modern industrial chains, CRRC actively builds a modern industrial system for rail transit equipment and clean energy equipment, solidly advancing foundation strengthening, technology chain completion, integration enhancement, and optimization, effectively driving various business entities toward the mid-to-high end of the industrial chain and value chain, and striving to better play the roles of sci-tech innovation, industrial control, and safety support in building a modern industrial system and new development pattern.

CRRC actively participates in industrial foundation reconstruction projects and major technical equipment tackling projects, accelerating the filling of weak links and shortcomings in key areas, products, and technologies of the industrial chain, consolidating and expanding China’s leading advantages in rail transit equipment. The Series China Standard Metro Train Development and Testing is a major technical equipment tackling project in China. Through project implementation, it has successfully developed key components such as high-speed circuit breakers, control systems, bearings, compressors, and brake control solenoid valves, achieving independent control of core technologies and key components for urban rail equipment; key systems such as metro traction, transmission, braking, signaling, and power supply have been localized and technologically upgraded, breaking technical dependencies on key components, with the vehicle localization rate exceeding 98%.

As the “locomotive” on the industrial chain, CRRC, while filling shortcomings, also focuses on driving overall industrial chain improvement through its own innovation. Focusing on building a community of shared destiny, CRRC emphasizes its role as a facilitator and mainstay supporter, actively building an industrial chain community of shared destiny, driving coordinated development of upstream, midstream, and downstream enterprises of all sizes, and striving to optimize the industrial development ecosystem.

Rail transit equipment features long industrial chains, broad radiation fields, and strong pulling effects. A Fuxing EMU set comprises over 40,000 components, involving raw materials such as steel and aluminum profiles, and more than a dozen industries including electronic appliances, information systems, and precision instruments, spanning over 20 provinces and cities nationwide. Currently, CRRC Group has over 86,000 suppliers across its entire industrial chain, including over 18,000 major suppliers and over 6,900 core suppliers. There are over 9,800 rail transit equipment suppliers, of which about 7,300 are private enterprises, accounting for 74%.

CRRC has consistently adhered to building new mechanisms, laying new foundations, sharing new achievements, creating new ecosystems, and pursuing new development together. Zhuzhou in Hunan and Qingdao in Shandong are two 100-billion-yuan-level industrial clusters for rail transit equipment. Zhuzhou, Hunan, ranks first globally in industrial concentration in the rail transit equipment field, home to five key enterprises including CRRC Zhuzhou, CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, CRRC Zhuzhou Electric, CRRC Electric Vehicle, and Times New Material, aggregating over 400 upstream and downstream enterprises that can address over 80% of supporting products and technologies. It has formed not only an industrial cluster that produces tens of thousands of components for electric locomotives, but also assembled top global industrial chain experts.

Qingdao, Shandong, hosts several key enterprises including CRRC Sifang and CRRC Sifang Research Institute, 13 national-level rail transit equipment technology R&D centers, and has driven over 260 supporting enterprises onto a fast development track. Here, the radiating and driving effects of the rail transit characteristic industrial cluster are accelerating their release, becoming an important position and powerful engine for developing new productive forces.