国内英语新闻:Subway train production base takes shape in north China's Tianjin

TIANJIN, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- A subway train of six cars being assembled rolled off a production line Friday at a production base in north China's Tianjin Municipality, according to China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR).

The subway train is the first of the kind ever produced at the CSR Tianjin Industrial Park, said CSR's chairman, Zhao Xiaogang.

The train, designed to run at a speed of 80 km per hour, has a holding capacity of 1,800 passengers. It will will be used in Tianjin's Subway Line 3, which will begin service in 2011.

The production base, with an initial investment of 3 billion yuan (455 million U.S. dollars), can produce 100 to 200 trains a year. It will attain a capacity of producing 500 trains annually in the next five years, according to Zhao.

Analysts say the base's first product marked Tianjin's efforts to encourage the development of modern and more advanced industries in the city.

The production base will boost the development of emerging industries in Tianjin and contribute to China's economic transformation, Zhao said.

CSR, a state-owned company with more than 80,000 employees, produces about 70 percent of all high-speed trains China.