The "Bohai No.1" roll-on-roll-off ferry carrying dozens of carriages of military train loaded with artillery, transport vehicles and combat personnel from the Jinan Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) slowly sailed off the Yantai Port at 11:00 on September 26, 2012, marking this cross-sea railway channel with the longest haul distance and the best ferrying performance in China is ready for military transportation hereafter.
The bottom storey of the 25k-ton and 7-storey "Bohai No 1" roll-on-roll-off ferry serves as the train cabin while the remaining as vehicle cabins and passenger cabins. According to the briefing, during the initial designing and construction of the ferry, military transportation needs were fully considered. A helicopter landing space was reserved on the deck, and the cabin on the bottom storey was embedded with rails to accommodate a 50-carriage train. Meanwhile, the ferry is equipped with roll-on-roll-off heavy equipment and personnel elevators for support.
The Bohai train ferry is a land-sea railway channel extending from northeastern China to the Yangtze River Delta region, one of the "Eight Verticals and Eight Horizontals" project in China's railway network scheme. It is effectively connected to the northeastern railway network in the north and the eastern coastal railway in the south. Through this route, the haul distance to the northeast will reduce by an average of 1,000-plus kilometers compared with the one bypassing the Shanhai Pass, saving 30-odd hours of travel time for the military trains.
"To transport the organic troop units by the cross-sea railway ferry opens up a new strategic transportation channel, and improves the effectiveness of projection support," said Sun Fengle, deputy director of the Military Transportation Department under the PLA General Logistics Department (GLD), on the site.
Picture Above: The picture shows the military trucks loaded with weapons and equipment are preparing to enter the train cabin of the "Bohai No 1" roll-on-roll-off ferry.
