This past Sunday, my wife and I traveled to Shenyang on one of the new "high speed" trains China Rail (CR) has introduced between Dalian and that city.
These new trains follow the appearance design of the Japanese "bullet trains", the French TGV, UK IC125, American Acella and others. Actually there are several different designs and some imports newly put into service around China. The one on the ShenDa line feature cars made in Changchun and electric traction equipment made by Dalian Loco. The trains are sleek in appearance, with a cab at each end, and an all-white livery on the outside. They feature servo operated doors and large picture windows for a good view. The window shades and windows encompass two rows so you may have to struggle with the folks in the next row over the position of the shade. The seats resemble airline seats and have individual drop down tray tables and a reclining feature that shrinks your leg room (rather than the next guys) when you recline. The seats are rather hard and the three and a half hour trip to Shenyang left us saddle sore. Also, the seats are not ergonomic and don't fit the human body very well. The ride is smooth most of the time except that our car at high speed had a heavy vibration that was quite annoying. The noise level is low except for the hum of the traction equipment when the train is accelerating, which it does in a hurry when the driver demands it. Actually these trains do not run at a track speed greater than that of the ordinary expresses on the ShenDa line. The seeming increase in speed comes by elimination of all stops. The normal expresses makes three stops and take four hours as a result. Allowing about ten minutes added time for each stop accounts for the difference.
These trains are the first series of Chinese trains that incorporate airline type flush toilets of western type with holding tanks on board. All the traditional trains in China dump human waste directly upon the right of way, which is now creating an unexpected problem for the new trains. The new trains have under floor air conditioning systems that have air inlets near the roadbed. This has proven to be a problem on these cars with the stink and filth from the roadbed entering the cars. This has necessitated that air filters be tripled and changed after every run. Engineers are working on solutions to this problem.
I applaud the attempt to show the world that CR can provide world class passenger services on its lines. These trains are a step in the right direction, but only a start. The larger problem observed on the train was that the passengers are the same old passengers that bring on large amounts of foods and throw the remains on the floor. This may be justified since there are no trash bins on the cars and not the traditional steel trays on the tables. The crowd of college-age passengers on our trip were particularly messy about things. Also, CR attempted to have airline type rest rooms with toilet paper, paper towels and liquid soap dispensers, but were foiled by the passengers. I visited the rest room a couple of minutes after leaving Dalian only to find the toilet seat and floor completely covered with pee already. Later in the trip, my wife visited the WC only to report all the paper towels had been stolen along with the soap dispenser. I give this train a grade of C overall. It looks great on the outside, it offers less space for the passenger on the inside and needs a lot more attention to interior details like the WC's and trash. On the plus side, we were never bothered by anyone smoking except that after a while it was clear that folks were going into the WC to smoke.
We came back on the conventional ShenDa express and enjoyed the trip much more. Those heavy double decker cars have a comfortable ride and soft seats. By the way, the high speed services are trains T543, T544, T545,T546, T547, and T548. There are other T-series trains in the local time table but these use conventional equipment. One interesting schedule is a Dalian to Changchun overnight non-stop train.
Alexis.Chu
This past Sunday, my wife and I traveled to Shenyang on one of the new "high speed" trains China Rail (CR) has introduced between Dalian and that city.
