A TETRA system from Cassidian has been chosen to provide radio coverage for the first metro line in Zhengzhou, capital and largest city of Henan province in the central plains of China.

The plan is to build six metro lines in Zhengzhou, with a total length of 189 km. Line 1, due to open next year, will serve 22 stations along a 35 km route. Cassidian’s TETRA network, supporting some 400 users, will share a single control centre with the remaining five lines, which are scheduled for construction by 2015.

The project is part of a programme to build around 80 mass transit rail lines in 22 Chinese cities by 2015. 

Cassidian has already provided TETRA systems for ten other metro lines in different areas of China, including Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang and Nanjing.

“China has enjoyed a ‘golden decade’ of city rail transit construction, and we are committed to further supporting that challenging development”, commented Galvin Wong, of Cassidian. “This new contract shows that our Chinese customers are relying on our advanced technology, mature products and long experience in that domain.”

The Zhengzhou network will include a switch at its core, 23 base stations and seven dispatcher station controllers which will communicate with TETRA handportables in the field. It will support train dispatching, operation and management, and security. Besides supplying the system, Cassidian will provide training and technical support services