China’s Humble-ish High Speed Beginnings: The CRH3 Trains

Ticket A57 | 12 August 2019

What the heck is this!? (Sorry for the crappy photo quality…)

I’m on the wrong blog! I thought it was supposed be about trains in China!

We hear you…

Hat China einfach unsere Züge geklaunt und wieder neu «farbiert»!? (Did China just merely “steal” our trains and “recolour” them?)

JEIN! (German for “both yes and no!”)…

And what’s the German all about?

Well: The CRH3 trains, running on Chinese rails since 2008, look slightly similar to Germany’s ICE 3 trains (and in fact, the very first CRH3C trains were Velaro products, known to the makers as Velaro CN, with the first few actually made in Germany).

Most of the CRH3 trains in China are of the CRH3C type, which did run as fast as 350 km/h (217 mph) before, but now do “only” 300 km/h (186 mph). They also lent their design to later trains, including the CRH380B, CRH380BG, and CRH380BL trains, and appear in a “long-nose” variant as the CRH380CL trains.

But if you’re talking about “Type A” CRH3 trains, then yes, they are a horse (or a bunny — CRH3C trains are affectionately known to many rail fans in China as “the bunny train”) of a different colour… quite literally…

(At the risk of breaking ranks with some of my good friends working for rail PR, I have to concur that this is a seriously butt-ugly train… we’re all still very cool now, nice people…)

The “3A” trains are good only for speeds up to 250 km/h (157 mph), and are quite different from their high-speed “3C” breathren. The “3A”s are only about two years or so old, and are mostly seen in Southwestern China. They’re mostly a First and Second Class train.

But the “3C” trains are seen just about everywhere else.

All CRH3C trains are 8-car beasts, with two able to come together as a coupled unit. There are only 16 Premier Class seats per train (most of them have only the “back” unit available for sale publicly, although closer to departure, the 8 seats in the “front” unit are sometimes made available for sale as well). The good thing with Premier Class is that you have seats 1F and 2F as solo seats (although Seat 2F is horrid, sometimes with the seat twisted in such a way that there’s no window!), as well as getting one complementary drink and a view of the driver’s cab (which sadly has been made translucent as of late 2011).

First Class sports the most legroom, followed by Second Class. Premier Class is woeful in legroom, but gives you bragging rights. If you bag Seat 1F, you will have your own window, own seat, and short of a good, full meal, and a power socket, paradise on the rails (without breaking the piggybank).

From 2008 through to 2009, these trains could only be spotted on the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, where they raced at the full 350. Starting in 2010, 350 km/h CRH3C trains could also be found on the Wuhan-Guangzhou bit of the present-day Beijing-Hong Kong HSR (via Wuhan).

The CRH3C trains were also the first-ever trains in China (if I’m not mistaken) where the train driver has to “borrow” his (or her) way through the passenger cabin (Premier Class bit) in order to leave or get onboard. So the driver had to use the doors for the general public. (A very cheeky passenger could theoretically push the “door close” button to make life hell for the driver (without locking it), but you’re not supposed to touch that button on the Chinese rails!)

The CRH3C was China’s first solid effort into the world of High Speed (along with the CRH2C trains). Still, you could tell this wasn’t really primed for prime time (excuse me please), as if you sat yourself in the Premier Class bit of the “tail-end Charlie” carriage, you’d feel a rather rocky-ish ride. (Fellow Brits might think of the Vomit Comet of the 1970s!)

But for any failure it might have exhibited to techies and riders alike, the CRH3C is still not a failed train at all. The exact same train, only longer (mostly 16-car), became the CRH380BL, and northeastern China got a -40°C savvy CRH380BG train. And there were also shorter CRH380B trains to come. Many of the original CRH3C trains are still running around, and the CRH3A trains, too, are taking riders from A to B, now running also on the stretch out from Chengdu to ultimately Lhasa, Tibet. Never say they run on bored rail routes!…