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Carbon fibre has long been a silver bullet that allows supercars and high-end bicycles to weigh less and move faster while maintaining strength and structure. The same benefits can also apply to much larger vehicles: metro trains with carbon fibre bogies and body shells are due to be rolled out later this year in the Chinese city of Qingdao after completing factory testing. CRRC, the world’s largest rolling stock manufacturer by revenue, first showed off a carbon fibre prototype in 2018 and says the material reduces the weight of the trains by 11 per cent. Lighter trains reduce power consumption, and will reportedly allow for speeds of 85 mph. This could help reduce the day-to-day environmental and economic costs of running passenger services in big cities. But only if there’s modern enough rail infrastructure for them to run on (sections of metros in London, Paris and New York are all over 100 years-old). Quirks of differing railway infrastructure around the world means the carbon model can’t run off-the-shelf on all metros – but it’s a promising proof of concept.
