In December 2025, China ran seven 5,000-ton coal trains across Inner Mongolia as a formation heavier than three Eiffel Towers combined, without physically connecting them; engineers believe it could boost rail capacity by over 50% without new tracks

In December 2025, China pulled off a railway experiment that sounds almost like something from a futuristic transport system: seven freight trains, each weighing 5,000 tons, ran on the same line in a compact formation without being connected by mechanical couplings, synchronizing their acceleration and braking exclusively through an intelligent wireless control system.

The test, conducted on the Baoshen railway in Inner Mongolia, brought the combined weight of the seven trains to 35,000 tons, which is equivalent to more than “three Eiffel Towers.”