Construction has begun on five stations of the passenger line described as a cross between a subway and a electric tram with the advantages of both, said a spokesperson for the New Transportation Office.

The planned line will have 13 stops of which four are underground, four are above ground, and five will be elevated stations. As explained by the spokesman, travel on the light railway won’t be affected by surface traffic from either congestion or accidental collisions, leading to loftier ambitions for the line:

Our entire plan is to follow the principles of “using the original route as much as possible, reduce the need to forcibly relocate residents, reduce the need for land space, use land routes where possible, switch to elevated tracks when that is not feasible, and finally resort to underground routes when all other options fail.”

The line will be 13.11 km long, and will have four transfer stations:

• A Chongleigang Park Station that will connect with the Jiangzhu transport line serving Guangzhou and Foshan
• A Foshan First Ring Road Station that will connect with Jiangzhu transport line serving Guangzhou and Foshan
• A Tangyi Park Station that will connect with Foshan Metro Line 6
• A Linyue West Station will connect with Foshan Metro Line 2

The line was first proposed in 2011 and construction began last year, although there have been multiple setbacks. Development has recently been hampered from issues stemming from the forced relocations of the Xiaxi and Pingdong neighborhoods, and from accommodating high-voltage power lines.

Photos: Weibo

CSR Zhuzhou will produce a total of seven trains that will enter service in December this year in Haizhou District without the need of electric overhead lines. The first scheduled line will connect Canton Tower with Wanshengwei in a circular route that has ten stops and is 7.7 km long. The tram will be able to hold 386 passengers and travel up to 70km/hr.

Supercapacitor technology is unlike conventional electric battery technology in that it can charge and release energy quickly. The future Guangzhou tram will solve the common problem of trams having to stop to recharge at every stop, thus saving time.

Photo: Railway Gazette

As seen on its official website, the Dongguan municipal government is now accepting bids to build a trolley system.

According to a source with the city planning department, a ”flexible” preliminary study has already been done with initial proposals on where the electric trolley lines will lead. Likely to consist of one or two lines and based on the electric trolley systems in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, this heavy-transit system will likely be built in the city center or by the waterfront. As the source with the Dongguan city planning department explains:

Building the tram tracks downtown can help alleviate pressure on traffic, while tracks near the waterfront won’t be as difficult to build since the new territory is spacious.

The source cautioned that preliminary studies for trolleys in other cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen have taken two years to finish, whereas Dongguan only began its study in January of this year.

During the second stage of the study, the city planning department will solicit advice from officials and experts.

Photo: s1979