New electric cargo train put into operation in China

A new type of electric cargo train was put into operation on Saturday at a steel plant in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, according to its developers, reported Xinhua.

Without external power supplies, the 14.9-meter-long train, designed for short-distance transportation in large factories, uses lithium iron phosphate batteries as its power source.

The cargo train, with a maximum design speed of 20 km per hour, can travel 120 km with a full load of 2,500 tonnes, according to the China Electric Power Research Institute. It took one and a half years for the institute to develop the vehicle, together with the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co., Ltd.

"Diesel locomotives are generally used to transport goods at steel plants, which causes serious pollution," said Luan Ning, the marketing department's director of the State Grid Nanjing Power Supply Company.

It is estimated that every one of the electric cargo trains can reduce about 172 tonnes of fuel consumption and the emission of around 817 tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases each year, the institute said.