On the streets of Kuala Lumpur, a brand new plaque was hung on July 30th - Guangdong Intercity Transport Management (Malaysia) Co., Ltd. was officially unveiled. On the same day, several hundred kilometers away in the conference room of Guangzhou Metro Group, a winning bid notice was spread out on the table: Guangdong Intercity Railway Operation Co., Ltd. won the Malaysia East Coast Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Project, with a total amount of over 900 million yuan and a service period of 10 years. This is the first overseas legal entity of Guangzhou Metro, and also the first time it has extended its tentacles from urban subways and intercity lines in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area to overseas mainline intercity railways.

The East Coast Railway in Malaysia is not an ordinary route. With a total length of about 665 kilometers, it starts from Kota Baru in the east and ends at Klang Port in the west. It crosses the peninsula and connects Kuantan Port and several cities along the line. The design speed is 160 kilometers per hour. It is the largest land transportation infrastructure in Malaysia's history, and also the flagship project of China Malaysia joint construction of the the Belt and Road. The main project will be completed in August 2026, followed by joint debugging and testing. The core section from Kota Bharu to Ermao will be opened to traffic in January 2027. Handing over the maintenance of such a major artery to a Chinese subway subsidiary is the confidence that Guangzhou Metro has demonstrated in the Greater Bay Area.

Developing internal skills in the Greater Bay Area

Guangdong Intercity Railway Operation Co., Ltd. was established in June 2019 and obtained the qualification for intercity railway passenger transportation in October 2020. It is the first local state-owned enterprise in China to operate intercity railways. Guangqing Intercity, Guangzhou East Ring Intercity, Guangzhou Foshan South Ring, Foshan Dongguan Intercity... One by one, the lines are handed over to it, with stops at each station and the addition of express trains, and the use of public transportation cards to enter the station. From 2023 to 2024, the average daily passenger flow will jump from 42100 to 74400, and the speed test within the jurisdiction will gradually increase to 220 kilometers per hour. The strategy of transforming multiple cities into one city in the Greater Bay Area has been honed for five years, and it happens to be able to move to the east and west coasts of the Malay Peninsula.

Pack three things together and leave

The winning bid this time is not a single track repair, but a package of work. In terms of operational technology, the complete set of standard systems for train organization, dispatch and command, safety control, and passenger service are outputted according to the order; In terms of personnel, we have trained a large number of train dispatch, maintenance technicians, and operation management talents for Malaysia. China Communications Construction Corporation has previously collaborated with Malaysia to train more than 2360 people, and Guangzhou Metro has taken over and brought up the localized team; On the equipment, a standardized maintenance and fault handling system will be established for communication signal power supply, roadbed, track, bridge, tunnel, and station building to ensure 10 years of stability. Only when technology, people, and equipment are packaged together can the circuit live longer.

Jumping from urban rail to mainline

In the past, when Guangzhou Metro went out to sea, it mostly stopped at urban rail tracks - Singapore Consulting, Abuja Urban Rail Maintenance in Nigeria, Ho Chi Minh City Training in Vietnam, and planning and design orders for the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. This time is different. The Ma Dong Railway is a mainline intercity railway with a speed of 160 km/h and a mileage of 665 km/h. Its maintenance standards are closer to the national railway system. Guangzhou Metro has used the experience of independent intercity operation in the Greater Bay Area as a springboard to integrate refined subway level services with railway level safety frameworks. This is the first time that domestic urban rail enterprises have exported intercity operation and maintenance standards to ASEAN on a large scale.keywords:Engineering infrastructure

The plaque was hung on the wall, and the office lights in Kuala Lumpur came on. In January 2027, when the first bullet train drives from Kota Baru to Omar, millions of residents along the line will not know which conference room in Guangzhou has snapped the board, but the dispatching logic, maintenance rhythm and stewards' gestures of the train they took all have the flavor of the the Pearl River Delta. A railway connects the daily lives of two countries, which is probably the most practical way for railways to go out to sea.Editor/Yang Meiling