Facts "Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) has a more efficient traffic system now. On the day of celebrating its 22 nd anniversary on December 6 th , trolley bus, Dongting Lu, Zhenhai Bridge and Jingshan Bridge are available for traffic."

Enorth.com.cn:Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) has a more efficient traffic system now. On the day of celebrating its 22nd anniversary on December 6th, trolley bus, Dongting Lu, Zhenhai Bridge and Jingshan Bridge are available for traffic.

Comfort and convenient internal facilities

At 14:00 on the afternoon of December 5, the trolley bus which was undergoing commission parked on the just-built Dongting Lu. The smooth bus body and the broad windows won unanimous praises from the visitors.

As the bus was still receiving commission, French engineering has been trying to prevent the journalists from boarding on the bus. With coordination and compromise, the journalist finally had an opportunity to board on the bus to have a near-distance view: the bus has a total of three carriages with 10 seats for each. The internal space is wide. The three carriages can carry 80 persons at rush hour.

The internal facilities are also humanistic. There’s a green button on the door. The door can open automatically if the passengers press it from outside. But the door will be locked automatically when the bus is running to prevent any possible risks. There are card readers at the entrance of each door and rails of different height can be seen in every corner of the bus. Seats specially designed for the disabled are preserved with an emergent call button at the side. Voice station announcing devices are placed at the joint of each carriage with Chinese and English captions provided.

The trolley runs stably

To ensure the trolley to run uninterruptedly in bus commissioning, the traffic control department arranges traffic policemen at each crossing to guide the traffic and prevent the happening of any risks. Xu Zhiqian, a senior engineer of Tianjin Binhai Mass Transit Development Co., Ltd, said, “after formal operation, the trolley bus will not have such treatment and will also abide by traffic signals as other vehicles.”

After running for about 10 minutes, we are already 5 km away from the departure spot. Xu Zhiqiang said: “the trolley has adopted a new generation of road traffic system integrated the advantages of public bus and steel track vehicles. Although the speed is as high as 70 km/h, the noise is small and the operation is stable as the trolley adopts rubber tyres.”

The trolley carriage has adopted the aluminum smelting structure and given consideration to the protection of passengers in case of collision. A horizontal beam is placed in the lower part of the side window and steel smelting structure is adopted for the bus head to further intensify the safety performance and the protection to the drivers and passengers.

The trolley will be put into operation in 2007

“If Tianjin-Binhai lightrail is a shoulder pole connecting the downtown area and TEDA, the trolley bus will become a “golden channel” in TEDA,” said Xu. It’s said that the trolley bus will have three routes. The route that is already open is the testing route. The route starts from TEDA stop of Tianjin-Binhai Lightrail and stops at TEDA College. The testing route is a passenger transportation line extending from the north to the south in the west part of TEDA. The full length of the line is 8.8 km and there are a total of 15 stations with an average space between of 583 m.

According to Zhang Xiaojun from the Construction and Development Bureau of TEDA, the No. 2 route starts from Yujiabu, Tanggu and extends northward to Beitang. With a total length of 15 km, it has a total of 19 stations. This route has connected at least three key spots, i.e. Yujiabo, TEDA and high-class residential area, in the planning of Binhai. It has very important role to mitigating the urban traffic and uplifting city image. The scheme for the No. 3 route is still in planning and the route may extend to Dagang.”

It’s said that three trolleys have arrived in TEDA and more are still in production. It’s said that Tianjin Binhai Mass Transit Development Co., Ltd has set up a Trolley Operation Management Department and related management is now receiving the training from the French side in order to prepare for the formal operation in 2007.

　Traffic system upgrading is in progress

“Trolley bus is not an isolated project, its construction indicates that the new traffic system of TEDA has entered the all-round upgrading stage,” said, Qu Huali, director of Construction and Development Bureau of TEDA.

Qu added: “the rebuilding of Dongting Lu, Zhenhai Bridge and Jingshan Bridge is the supportive projects of the trolley project, but their significances are more than that.” It’s said that Zhenhai Bridge is a underground passage connecting the 3rd and 4th Streets. Jingshan Bridge will uplift the traffic capacity of the extended line of Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Express and further improve the traffic environment in Binhai New Area. Dongting Lu rebuilding also facilities underground pipeline network rebuilding and road surface broadening.

Qu said that the people and enterprises in TEDA will be greatly benefited from trolley. Under the background of sharp increase of private car and traffic congestion, trolley has provided a new solution to the public traffic construction. At the same time, the trolley will greatly improve the living environment of local residences, boost the urbanization process, promote industrialization and attract more foreign-funded enterprises and top-notch talents of TEDA.

·泰达有轨电车开通 开发区新交通系统全面升级