2021 China Urban Rail Transit Key Technology Forum & 30th Metro Academic Exchange Conference Held Ceremoniously in Hangzhou

On Nov. 27th, “2021 China Urban Rail Transit Key Technology Forum & 30th Metro Academic Exchange Conference” was held ceremoniously in Hangzhou. Wang Hanjun, president of the rail transit branch of China Civil Engineering Society and UCD’s general manager attended the conference and delivered remarks.

Elites gathered at the conference. Gong Xiaonan and Chen Xiangsheng, academicians of the China Society of Engineering, as well as nearly 50 experts and pacesetters gathered together. Revolving around the theme of “Low-carbon Urban Rail Transit & Intelligent Construction – and Key Technologies for Urban Rail Transit Construction, Operation and Maintenance in Metropolitan Areas”, the conference focused on such hotspot issues as breakthroughs and innovations in key technologies of urban transit in China, innovation technologies of green rail transit in metropolitan areas, low-carbon urban rail transit technologies, and brought about discussions and exchange as well as forefront consultations, shared new thoughts, probed into new trends and gave free rein to the imagination of the new future for the development of urban rail transit industry.

The conference lasted one day, going on simultaneously both online and offline.

Wang Hanjun said in his address that since this year topics on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have drawn major attention on national and social levels. At the NPC and CPPCC, it was pointed out in the Report on the Work of the Government that all work concerning carbon peaking and carbon neutrality should be done in a down-to-earth manner, and it has been put forward in the 14th Five-year Plan that green and low-carbon development should be pushed ahead at an accelerated pace. Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Opinions on Doing a Good Job of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality and Action Plan for Carbon Peaking before 2030. As a typical public transport means, how to enhance energy utilization efficiency through technical innovation and digital transformation to realize more low-carbon and more environment-friendly green development merits in-depth thought for the rail transit industry. Under the guidance of the national carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy, related cities have already applied such information technologies as cloud computing, big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence and 5G to the construction of smart stations. Some cities have made plans one after another to actively seize opportunities for the high-quality development of the rail transit industry.

Wang Hanjun said that new circumstances have endowed urban rail transit with new missions and put forward new topics of the times. He said that as the platform for technology research and innovation, technology exchange, industry development and achievements application and popularization, the rail transit branch of China Civil Engineering Society keeps close watch on national policy orientation, actively responses to industry hot topics and takes “Low-carbon Urban Rail Transit & Intelligent Construction – and Key Technologies for Urban Rail Transit Construction, Operation and Maintenance in Metropolitan Areas” as the theme of the forum with a view to pooling all strength to boost the development and progress of the industry. At the conference, government leaders, experts and professionals gathered together and presented ideas and suggestions around the theme and explored new knowledge, which will inevitably broaden the common ground and bring about new wisdom to lead the industry toward new development. The rail transit branch will give full play to its role and join hands with all walks of life to give an impetus to the high-quality development of the urban rail transit industry in China to come up with the new answers of the times！

The conference was hosted by the rail transit branch of China Civil Engineering Society and was undertaken by Hangzhou Metro and UCD. General manager of Hangzhou Metro Zhu Chunlei delivered a welcoming speech and vice president of China Civil Engineering Society Shang Chunming addressed the conference online. Vice president of the rail transit branch of China Civil Engineering Society Feng Aijun, chief engineer of Hangzhou Metro Zhang Jinrong and professor of Beijing Jiaotong University Liang Qinghuai presided over the conference respectively.

At the opening ceremony held in the morning, the ceremony for the release of the Program for the Development of Urban Rail Transit Technologies 2021-2025 was held. Compiled by UCD jointly with a number of membership units, the program sums up and reviews in retrospect the history and precious experience of the rail transit industry developed in China in an all-around way and puts forth orientation for the development of urban rail transit technologies in coming 5-10 years in China as well as the forefront theories and core technologies for pivotal research, which is a programmatic document for the development of rail transit technologies in all cities across China.

In the keynote speeches, academicians of China Civil Engineering Society Gong Xiaonan and Chen Xiangsheng respectively led the theme reports on Safety Risks of Underground Engineering and Low-carbon Construction of Urban Rail Transit Construction and, subsequently, Hangzhou Metro’s chief engineer Zhang Jinrong, chairman of Nanjing Institute of City & Transport Planning Co., Ltd. Yang Tao, AECOM’s transport infrastructure vice president Yang Wenwu, GMDI’s chief engineer Shi Haiou delivered excellent remarks  respectively, bringing about new concepts and strategies for the rail transit development. At the forum held in the afternoon, 10 experts from the industry shared projects Zhan Tianyou prize projects and innovation technologies. At the conference, the ceremony for the release of urban rail transit technology innovation for popularization was held. 18 engineering and technology projects won prizes and commended.

During the conference, the experts staged a brainstorming, speaking glowingly of the new orientation for low-carbon rail transit development, and demonstrated new achievements in innovation technologies and equipment. Participants in the conference made discussions actively, all saying they reaped no little benefit. The forum drew wide attention, with tens of thousands of audiences watched the live broadcasting online witnessing the grand gathering all together.