On January 21, 2026, Baoshen Railway embarked on a groundbreaking trial. In this trial, China's self-developed 35,000-ton heavy-haul train consortium took on the formidable challenge of pioneering the world's first automatic formation driving for heavy-haul trains. Throughout the test, seven 5,000-ton freight trains seamlessly coordinated their movements using solely wireless signals, eschewing the need for physical couplers, and thus coalescing into a colossal train formation. Should this technology be implemented, it has the potential to directly elevate future transportation capacity by 50%, all without the necessity of constructing new railway lines.
