GUANGZHOU, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The Foshan Station of the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang High-Speed Railway, constructed by China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), was officially put into operation on Wednesday. As another landmark project of the "high-speed rail entering downtown" initiative in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the station, located in Chancheng District of Foshan City, has set a new benchmark for premium station buildings in the region with a series of green and low-carbon technologies.
The Foshan Station has a total construction area of 294,000 square meters, including a station building of 50,000 square meters. It features 4 platforms and 9 tracks (including 1 platform and 2 tracks reserved for future expansion), with a maximum capacity of 2,500 passengers. The station is expected to handle approximately 4.6 million passengers annually in the initial phase and about 6 million in the long term.
According to the CRCC project head, green and low-carbon features are the station's biggest highlight. A "light guide tube" system has been installed on the platform deck to efficiently utilize natural light for illumination, which is expected to save 267,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, significantly reducing operational energy consumption. In the waiting hall, the project pioneers a DC centralized lighting control system for high-speed railway stations, effectively avoiding the common drawbacks of traditional AC lighting, such as high energy consumption and complex maintenance at height. Illuminance sensors distributed throughout the hall can automatically adjust lighting loads based on natural lighting and passenger flow density, reducing air conditioning energy consumption by more than 15 percent and saving 20 percent of fresh air system energy.
During the construction, the builders also incorporated Foshan's cultural elements such as lion dance, kung fu and Cantonese opera into the architectural form. For the first time, multi-curved seamless steel plate "blossom columns" inspired by Foshan's city flower – the white magnolia – were adopted in the waiting hall, creating a new railway hub with distinctive Lingnan charm.
With the completion of Foshan Station, a direct connection between the city centers of Guangzhou and Foshan can be achieved in just 18 minutes, promoting the deep integration of the two trillion-yuan-level metropolises. The station will connect with several high-speed railway lines including Beijing-Guangzhou, Guangzhou-Zhanjiang and Guangzhou-Shantou, making it a new hub for the northward transportation network of western Guangdong and contributing to the development of the "railway-based Greater Bay Area."
