As of the end of October 2023, China's high-speed rail operating mileage has reached 43,000 kilometers.At the same time, the number of EMUs running across the country has reached 3,541 and 4,073 standard units, accounting for more than two-thirds of the world's total. Up to now, the cumulative safe operation mileage of China's high-speed EMUs has reached 16.8 billion kilometers.
Calculated based on the maximum distance between the Earth and Pluto of 7.5 billion kilometers, it is enough for a round trip, which is more than enough.
So, what is the lifespan of China's EMUs?
According to media reports, Shan Wei, director of the EMU and Passenger Cars Division of the Locomotive and Rolling Stock Department of the China Railway Group, revealed,After 58 important component optimizations, the upper limit of advanced repair cycles for CRH2 and CRH380A EMUs has been significantly extended from 620,000 kilometers to 1.25 million kilometers, and that of other Harmony EMUs has been extended from 1.32 million kilometers to 1.45 million kilometers.
In addition, the gearbox oil replacement cycle of the CRH1 EMU has been extended from 200,000 kilometers to 400,000 kilometers.
At the same time, the failure rate of China's high-speed EMUs has been greatly reduced.A cumulative reduction of 89% since 2012, and the number of faults per million kilometers in the first 10 months of 2023 will be less than 5.3, which is also at a very high level internationally.
Shan Wei revealed that the China Railway Group is currently carrying out life extension evaluation work for EMUs.
In Europe, the design life of EMUs is generally 30 years, and they are renovated every 15 years. The actual service life can be about 40 years.
The EMUs that were put into operation early in China were designed to have a service life of 20-30 years. For example, the Harmony EMU, which was the first to be put into operation in 2007, has been running for nearly 17 years, with a longest operating mileage of more than 8.6 million kilometers.
These EMUs have entered the middle and late stages of their design life, and it is necessary to carry out performance status assessment, remaining life assessment and economic assessment.
Shan Wei said,The goal is to extend the service life of these EMUs to more than 30 years.