China unveils world’s first mixed-mode autonomous railway yard

In an effort to create a modern, intelligent, low-carbon transportation system and lower logistics costs for the entire population, Zhejiang Yiwu Port announced that China has opened its first railway container terminal with mixed-mode autonomous driving capabilities. According to the Hangzhou Railway Logistics Center of the China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group, a freight train carrying 100 standard containers left for the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the busiest cargo hub in the world by tonnage, on June 27 to inaugurate the Suxi container handling station in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province.

The terminal, which is a component of the Yiwu (Suxi) International Hub Port, has an annual design capacity of 660,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and is connected to the Ningbo-Jinhua Railway. It has a computerized management system, a container yard, a rail loading zone, and a customs monitoring area.

The facility, which has been authorized as China’s first railway yard autonomous driving experimental zone, combines intelligent transporters, automated storage systems, and remote-controlled gantry cranes to allow for unmanned operations in addition to conventional workflows. Industry leaders claim that this hybrid model is a turning point in China’s efforts to update its logistics infrastructure. The terminal lowers transit times and expenses by creating a logistics corridor that connects the two areas. According to Zhao, freight entering the Suxi station is handled as though it had already reached the harbour.