Approved by the Technical Committee of the National Railway Administration, the railway industry standard 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway' (TB10623-2014) was recently approved and issued by the National Railway Administration, effective March 1, 2015.
This is China's first industry standard for intercity railway construction, which will provide important technical support for attracting local government and social capital investment in intercity railway construction and accelerating the advancement of new urbanization.
According to the newly formulated 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway', intercity railway refers to a fast, convenient, and high-density passenger dedicated railway line specifically serving adjacent cities or urban agglomerations, with a design speed of 200 km/h or less for passenger trains. It generally has regional and short-distance characteristics, and mostly adopts a high-density, small-consist, and public-transit-oriented transport organization model. Compared with high-speed railways, intercity railways differ significantly in functional positioning requirements, inherent technical characteristics, and operation management models.
Considering the passenger flow distribution patterns between adjacent cities and urban agglomerations, and adapting to China's urbanization development strategy and the diversified investment and construction characteristics of intercity railways, the 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway', based on systematically summarizing practical experience in intercity railway construction and operation and conducting in-depth basic theoretical research, proposes serialized speed-matching and equipment-supporting design requirements in accordance with the overall goals of safety and reliability, advanced maturity, economic applicability, and convenience and speed. While implementing the principle of safety priority and strengthening the green construction concept of 'four savings and one protection', the 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway' highlights technical and economic efficiency. Its main technical standards and key technical parameters of various specialties, such as transport organization mode, construction clearance, design load, line spacing, bridge structure type, and tunnel cross-section, all emphasize the applicability and economy of the standard. According to estimates, under the conditions of ensuring safety and with the same railway grade, design speed, transport capacity, and transport efficiency, engineering projects adopting the 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway' save more than 10% in static investment compared with the original passenger dedicated line standard. At the same time, the 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway' pays more attention to building a comprehensive transportation system, leveraging the role of intercity railways in the road network and their integration with other transportation modes. Important nodes consider conditions for interconnection or transfer with the railway network, and focus on achieving smooth connection and convenient transfer with public transit systems such as urban rail transit.
To ensure that the 'Code for Design of Intercity Railway' is more targeted and applicable, the National Railway Administration, together with China Railway Corporation, invited authoritative experts in relevant domestic and railway fields for demonstration and review multiple times during the organization and compilation process, and extensively solicited opinions from relevant national ministries and commissions, 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and relevant enterprises and institutions, receiving more than 700 feedback comments.