On March 15, the inauguration ceremony of the Railway Intelligent Train Control Lab, the Joint Laboratory for Intelligent Logistics Application Technology and the Postdoctoral Innovation Base was held in Xi-Xian New Area. Executives and industry experts from Xi-Xian New Area Management Committee, Shaanxi Coal & Chemical Industry Construction Group, Shaanxi Railway and Logistics Industry Group, Southwest Jiaotong University and CASCO gathered together to witness this important moment, which marks a leap of the mutual cooperation and development of the two enterprises to a new level under the leadership of Xi-Xian New Area Management Committee.

Inauguration ceremony

Strong partnership to greet the new era of intelligent railways

Xi-Xian New Area is a national-level new area featuring innovative urban development mode, charged with the glorious task of creating "an important foothold for the Silk Road Economic Belt, an important hub for opening up to the west region, a new engine for western development, and an example of new urbanization with Chinese characteristics". In recent years, Xi-Xian New Area has given top strategic priority to developing transportation capacity to further improve the multi-level comprehensive transportation system, advance the construction of urban roads and rail transportation, and then drive the construction of Greater Xi'an as a national central city.

CASCO and Shaanxi Railway and Logistics Industry Group are both important partners of the Xi-Xian New Area, and Shaanxi Railway and Logistics Industry Group has started the construction of the headquarters base in Xi'an New Area, the new area is also doing its best to ensure that the project is put into operation. CASCO is also steadily moving forward with preparations for its Northwest headquarter under the leadership of Xi-Xian New Area government, and will bring its advanced and proven experience in fully automatic operation projects to the future construction of rail transit in Greater Xi'an.

CASCO staff introducing the Lab to the present experts

The opening of the Railway Intelligent Train Control Lab co-built by CASCO and Shaanxi Railway and Logistics Industry Group is the result of the increasingly deepened strategic cooperation between both sides and a great example of the achievements resulting from the joint efforts. The Lab will be the first in China to carry out a range of innovative high-tech research projects such as next-generation train control technology based on Beidou satellite positioning, gradually develop independent innovation, core technology research and engineering applications, set industry standards, attract, cultivate and gather a group of top talents and technical backbone in the industry, lead and promote the technological progress of the railway industry, and finally build a domestic first-class and international leading railway intelligent train control key laboratory and engineering technology research center.

Promoting the "dual-intelligent" transformation of the industry by scientific research

While upholding the concept of "building intelligent railway, developing intelligent logistics", the Lab has taken on the special mission of promoting industry transformation with technology since its inception. The Lab will adopt the research cooperation mode combining "government, industry, academia, research, and application", and rely on CASCO's high-level engineering and research team to carry out research, development, and promotion of cutting-edge technologies in the field of intelligent train control for local railways, make breakthroughs in the common and key technological issues faced by the industry, explore the next generation of the intelligent train control system; and promote the basic research on the digitalization, informatization and intelligent transformation of railway and logistics, as well as their industrial applications.

In terms of functional partitioning, the Lab is mainly divided into intelligent train control area, intelligent station area, intelligent dispatching center area, machine room and testing area. The present experts watched demonstration of the moving-block intelligent train control system based on Beidou satellite positioning, an important research result, as well as the scenarios such as intelligent dispatching, multimedia teaching and training, and simulation training. It is worth mentioning that the intelligent train control area and intelligent station area will also finish construction soon and, with the modeling of the "Shan Mei" car, allow for interior view-simulation, as well as other applications such as intelligent operation and maintenance, video monitoring.

Interior of the Lab

The establishment of this Lab not only witnesses another milestone in CASCO's deep commitment to the railway industry, but it also represents a successful innovative practice of CASCO in exploring the local railway market, which has an exemplary significance for local railway systems to develop intelligent transportation solutions for "the first and last mile".

The year 2021 is the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the opening year of building China into a major transport country by 2035. The recently released "Guidelines on Developing Comprehensive Transport Network" and "Outline for Building China's Strength in Transportation" together draw a grand blueprint for the future transportation development in China. As a leading enterprise in the rail transportation industry, CASCO will, under the leadership of the Xi-Xian New Area Management Committee, take the joint laboratory as the basis to empower both enterprises, integrate advantageous resources to precisely target the needs of the country and the industry, innovate and forge ahead, continuously improve our research level and talent cultivation capacity, take full advantage of our construction experience in the field of rail transportation and play a supporting and demonstration role of an industry leader, and further develop multi-party cooperation to contribute to the construction of the national central city of Greater Xi'an.