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Contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 2
2. Main characteristics of the railway networks in different countries ........................................................ 3
2.1. Oman Railway .................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2. Saudi Arabia Railway .......................................................................................................................... 5
2. 3. Turkey Railway ................................................................................................................................ 10
2. 4. Malaysia Railway ............................................................................................................................. 15
3. Comparison of the railway networks in the different countries ............................................................ 19
4. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 21
References .................................................................................................................................................. 22
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1. Introduction
Railway or train transport is the conveyance of goods and passengers on wheeled vehicles
which run on rail tracks. Contrary to road transport which involves a prepared surface, trains are
guided directionally by the rail tracks which they run on. These rail tracks are usually made of
steel installed on ballast and sleepers. It is on this tracks that the rail vehicles roll on using their
metal wheels.
However, the design of an appropriate railway transport network is generally not an easy task. In
this regard, it is necessary to evaluate aspects such as:
-
How are the trains designed to circulate through this network?
-
Which should be the distance between the rail tracks?
-
How is the landscape through which the railway network will travel?
-
Which cities shall the railway network connect?
-
Which is the expected traffic regarding both population and cargo?
Answering these questions becomes essential to correctly design the railway network such
that it will satisfy the country’s needs. Taking this into account, the present report describes the
comparison of the railway networks in four different countries: Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
Malaysia. The objective of such comparison is to evaluate how the different variables might affect
the railway network in the different countries. As an example, if we consider the landscape, that
of desert areas (as those commonly found in Oman, Saudi Arabia or parts of Turkey) are greatly
different and pose different engineering design problems than that of mountainous areas like
Malaysia.
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2. Main characteristics of the railway networks in different countries
2.1. Oman Railway
Oman does not yet have a railway network. They are currently working on developing their
first railway system in the country. Their railway line will be about 2135 km in length. It will go
from the border of Oman/UAE to Muscat, and will also connect the central and southern areas of
the country at Salalah and Duqm. The trains will also go to the border of Yemen. It is going to be
a part of the National Railway Project in Oman. It will also be a part of the GCC Railway Network.
The trains will be under the European Control System. They will also follow the AREMA Manual
for Railway Engineering, Eurocodes, GCC Common Operational and Executional Guidelines, and
GCC Regulatory and Founding Rules, standards.
The speeds have been designed to reach 220 kilometers per hour for passenger trains, and
120 kilometers per hour for freight trains. The tracks will be double tracks, and the system will
have a mixed traffic network, meaning there will be different types of train lines. The axle load is
set to be 32.4 tons per axle. The system will also have diesel traction double stack wagons, with a
maximum gradient of 1.5% and a minimum curvature of 3000 meters. Some of the track
components include 60 kg rails, CWR flash-butt welding joints, ballasts, concrete pre-stressed
sleepers, and 1435 mm track gauges. They will also have an elastic fastening system with clips,
rail pads, insulating materials, and anchorage. The ballast will be made of durable aggregate, which
is hard, and supplied from Europe. The ballast thickness will have a main line that is 35 cm. The
ballast size will be between 31.5 mm and 50 mm.
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The railway network will also have many signaling systems for safety. These include
centralized vital, peripheral, and on-board signaling systems. The main struggles in building this
network are the topography, terrain, climate, harsh environment, environmentally protected areas,
and water reservations.
The railway project (Figure 1) will be divided into 9 lines. The Oman/UAE Border – Sohar
will be 127 km, Al Buraimi to Spur will be 34 km, Spur to Sohar will be 38 km, Hafeet to Ibri will
be 114 km, Ibri to Al Dahra will be 126 km, Al Dahara to Al Gabha will be 116 km, Al Gabah to
Haima will be 197 km, Al Gabag to Duqm will be 175 km, Haima to Amal will be 166 km, Amal
to Thumrayt will be 220 km, Thumrayt to Salalah will be 93 km, Sohar to Muscat will be 188 km,
the link to Muscat Central Station will be 18 km, Al Misfah to Sinaw will be 160 km, Sinaw to
Ibra will be 91 km, Thumrayt to Mazyounah will be 194 km, and Sohar Port to the UAE Border
at Khatmat will be 70 km. The railway will be built in three stages. Phase one is supposed to be a
230 km line from Sohar to Muscat. Phase two will be the 560 km from Muscat to Duqm, and phase
three will be an addition to that line. They also plan to construct a metro system in Muscat.
Figure 1. Railway plan of Oman
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2.2. Saudi Arabia Railway
The current railway network map of Saudi Arabia links the cities of Riyadh with Hofhuf,
Abaqaiq, Damman, Djubail, Haradh and Al Kharj.
There are several ongoing projects that plan to extend the network to the Red Sea through
Al Moyah and Jeddah (Saudi Landbridge), in the surroundings of Jeddah to cover cities such as
Mecca, King Abdulla economic city and Medina as well as the King Abdulaziz International
Airport (Haraman high speed rail or west rail), and North of Riyadh until the Jordanian border,
linking cities such as Buraidah, Hail, Bosajata, Sakakah, Al Baseeta, Al Quorayyat and Al Haditha,
as well as important facilities such as the King Khalid International Airport, Zabirah’s bauxite
mines, and Hazm Al Jalamid phosphate mines (Anon, n.d.)
Figure 2. Railway map of KSA
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There are two main railway companies in Saudi Arabia that either provide service in the
currently existing lines or will do it in the designed projects. In this regard, the Saudi Railway
Company will operate the 2750 km north-south line as well as a parallel passenger line that links
the cities of Al-Haditha and Riyadh. On the other hand, the Saudi Railways Organization operates
a total of 1380 km, including a 373 km long intercity passenger line, a 449-km long passenger line
and a 556 km-long cargo line (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
The total Saudi Arabia railway transportation network includes not only the trains, but also
the Metro lines in big cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah or Makkah. Taking this into account, the
overall length of the transportation network will account for a total of 5841 km once the different
ongoing projects are finished (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
The length of the different existing and planned lines is:
-
-
Railway network: 5271 km
o
North-South railway network: 2750 km
o
Landbridge: 958 km
o
GCC: 663 km
o
HHR: 450 km
o
SRO upgrade: 450 km
Metro network: 570 km
o
Riyahd: 176 km
o
Mashaer: 18 km
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Jeddah: 108 km
o
Makkha: 182 km
o
Eastern region metro: 86 km
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Regarding the heavier and general axle load of the network, the cargo rail line connects the
cities of Dammam and Riyadh for a length of 1418 km. It was initially designed in 1947 and was
then one of the largest railway construction projects. This cargo line transports both cargo (such
as bauxite and phosphate minerals from the corresponding mines) and passengers (Al-Hudhaif,
2014).
In this regard, the cargo transportation network has 524 hopper wagons especially designed
for the transportation of phosphate and 240 open top hopper wagons used in the transportation of
bauxite. The cargo trains used in the mineral transportation line can carry up to 32.4 ton axle loads
at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. Other cargo trains can travel at faster speeds, of up to 110 km/h.
On the other hand, it has been estimated that the total number of passengers using the Saudi Arabia
network is of around 2 million. It is expected that the maximum amount of traffic comes from the
existing areas of the North South Railway Line in its 32.4-ton axle load trains (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
The passenger trains can carry 30 ton axle loads at an average speed of 160 km/h.
The train control system in use is the ETCS level 2. The trains are designed with an EMDSD70 ACS motor that provides a power of approximately 4300 hp.
The Saudi Railways Organization has a total of five EWD SW1200 diesel-electric
locomotives, seven class 2400s diesel-electric locomotives and various EMD diesel-electric
locomotives. Most of the trains use the CAF model with 8 passenger units and 10 power cars.
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However, the Saudi Railway Company also has some CAF push-pull trains with 75 passenger
units and 12 power cars. Even while the railway is designed such that trains travel at an average
speed of 160 km/h, these high-power trains can go as fast as 200 km/h. The sleeper height of the
trains, on the other hand, is of 240 mm (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
The critical parameters that affect the track design are the requirement of travelling at a
relatively high speed and, most importantly, the temperature change and extremely high
temperatures as they travel through the desert. Additionally, the trains must withstand a significant
variation of the composition of the soil in the different areas crossed by the railway line and the
presence of common sandstones that would significantly damage the train’s structure. Taking this
into account, the design of trains in Saudi Arabia requires of the use of highly sophisticated
fastening systems. In this regard, the Saudi Arabia Railway Corporation is currently purchasing
the most advanced fastening systems from Vossloh (Anon, 2014).
On the other hand, the railway companies need to face social and economic problems. In
this regard, there is a scarce market support and very few highly-qualified staff available. Due to
this demand of staff, they are commonly paid high hourly wages (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
The standards currently in use by the Saudi Arabia railway network are:
•
International Railway Industry Standards
•
Heavy Haul Association Standards
•
High-speed European standards
The objective of using these standards is to ensure the adequate design and maintenance of the
trains (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
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The main characteristic of the landscape of the railway network in Saudi Arabia is the
desert and the sand. As has been discussed earlier, this represents a significant problem for the
design of the trains, as they must withstand both the high temperatures and the possibility of going
through a high damaging sandstorm as they travel through the desert. Additionally, the landscape
includes some mountains, quaint villages and a few big cities (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
Figure 3 presents the expansion plans of the Saudi Railways Organization. As can be
observed, it is planning to expand their network to the Red Sea port at Jeddah, and then to the
borders of Jordan, Yemen, and possibly Egypt (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
Figure 3. Expansion plans of the Saudi Railways Organization
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As had been stated earlier, there are two main companies operating in the Saudi Arabia
railway network: The Saudi Arabia Company and the Saudi Arabia Railways Organization. These
companies are state-owned, meaning that it is the government that makes the necessary decisions
regarding which project to approve and when to acquire new trains. They are in charge of both
maintaining the assigned passenger and cargo railway lines (Al-Hudhaif, 2014).
2. 3. Turkey Railway
The Turkish Railway is under operation of a total of 8,686km of rail network, where 1,919
km of this are electric, 397 km are high speed rail lines and 443 km are double tracks. Figure 4
shows the current railway map in Turkey. Until the Muramaray tunnel, which is a Bosporus
undersea tunnel which is under construction and partially operational, Turkey has two distinct
networks in Anatolia and Thrace which are connected in Istanbul through the Bosporus rail ferry.
Five big cities (Adana, Bursa, Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul) have electrified LRT systems.
Figure 4. Railway network in Turkey
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The most common rail weight is 49 kg per meter. It is occupied by 69% of the rail tracks
and the rest being light-weight rail. The railway network has a total of 1,316 bridges, made of steel
and averaging 22 m in length exist with 99% of these being appropriate for axle loads of over 20
tons and 40% of these being suitable for axle loads of 22.5 tons (Amiril, et al, 2014).
Turkey’s net traffic stands at 26.6 million tons as of 2014, where 7.1 million of this is
carried by private rail. Strengthening of freight is in order to ensure that this number goes up.
Turkey’s railway uses pre-stressed concrete sleepers. They incorporate an advanced
locking components which include actuators and inspector rods which are used to drive motors
into the rail sleepers which are hollow (Figure 5). In addition, the rails use modular bearers which
are made from cast iron to increase the resistance on shift to the sleepers. Sleepers are wooden for
the old rails and concrete for the new rails. They also include boltless check rails which prevent
misalignment between the check rails and the sleepers. The rails also have rollers which allow for
implementation of eccentric bolts (iannakos & Loizos, 2010). New tracks use Tension Clamp
while old ones are Baseplate-based and use screw spikes.
Figure 5. Rotating bolts on fastening systems
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Turkey’s railway has been influenced by economic factors which also fall on social issues.
The Trans-Asia railway line remains to be a crucial influencer of the design of the rail network for
the purpose of economic purpose. Again, this is for the purpose of ferrying both the passengers
and goods of trade across countries. (Babalik, 2000). A 250km/h line has been used to compromise
on the expenses of the consumption of energy, numbers of journey as well as the topography of
the region. This is an electric rail-line which has the capability of thrusting huge locomotives
efficiently despite the topography of the region.
The Turkey’s railways standards are as follows:
•
Rail Gauge: The gauge is set at 1435 mm.
•
Loading Gauge: This is set to meet the International Union of Railways (UIC) gauge
•
Electrification: Voltage is set at 25 kV while overhead lines operate at 50 Hz.
•
Traffic: Traffic is set at Right Hand
•
Rail: New rails which include the electric and rebuilt rails are set au UIC 60 and UIC s49
for the new ones.
•
Fastening: New tracks use Tension Clamp while old ones are Baseplate-based and use
screw spikes
•
Coupling: Uses Chain and Buffers.
•
Brakes: Brakes are Air systems
•
Platform Height: low platforms are set at 380 mms and high ones at 550 mm and commuter
rails set at 1050 mm.
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There are various significant features which can be observed with Turkey’s advanced rail
network. One is the High-speed rail. The f33 km of high speed rail was first inaugurated in 2009
and since then, the country has seen an increased expansion in this sector. The main rail track’s
gauge stands at 1435 which is also a double track. Electrification stands at 25kV with a minimum
radius of 11,500 ft. Turkey’s railways is also noticeable for having 804 tunnels which collectively
run for 200.4 km. This railway boasted a ridership of 5.69 and 5.09 million riders in2015 and 2014
respectively.
The different railway projects that are currently under construction are outlined in figure 6
These are:
-
Ankara – Sivas: This is a high-speed line of length 466 km and projected to run at 250km/h.
Planned to be completed by 2023
-
Ankara Bursa: This is a high-speed line and projected to run at 250km/h and planned to be
completed by 2023
-
Ankara-Izmir: High speed line which will have a length of 624 and running at 250km/h to
be completed by 2025.
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Figure 6. Future Rail Projects in Turkey
Finally, the railway in Turkey is state-managed. In this regard, the Turkish State Railway
owns and manages all the public lines in the county. It also holds shares for other rail companies
such as IZBAN Maramaray and is a member of Interail.
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2. 4. Malaysia Railway
Malaysia’s railway network is presented in figure 7. It is a rail-based freight transport
covers 2,262 kilometers and is operated by KTMB. The Padang Besar – Johor Bahru network is
804 kms long and is a section of the Singapore – Kunming network. Malaysia also has electrified
Double Track project among them being Ipoh-Padang Besar and Seremban – Gemas. The latter
has six stations and is 98 kilometers long. Ipoh-Padang Besar is 329 kilometers long, has 2 tunnels,
15 stations and has 8 halts (Berhad, 2014).
Figure 7. Malaysia Railway map
Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur monorail trains are made of stainless steel, composite and
aluminium body shells. Suspensions are air cushioned and maximum axle load set at 10 tons.
(Grantham, 2009). With the expansion of the Trans-Asian Railways however, the axle load has
increased to allow for an axle load of 23, 22.5 and 20 tons depending on the various line sections.
According to the 2016 annual report by the government, Malaysia’s inter-city daily traffic
stood at 5.5K tons in 2015 and 6.1K tons in 2014. The KTM Komuter daily traffic stood at 135.8K
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tons in 2015 and 128.6K tons. The light rail daily traffic stood at 396.6K tons in 2015 and 397.9K
in 2014, while the total freight traffic stood at 4,129K tons in 2015 and 7,136k tons in 2014.
Malaysian’s modernized tracks are designed such that they support the modern trains
which replace the old 90km/h with the modern ones that could go up to 160km/h. The tracks are
made of steel rails and mechanical fasteners as well as concrete sleepers which also incorporate
geotechnical technology such as ballast and sub-ballast (Figure 8). Mechanical fasteners form the
main components that fasten the systems. Sleepers rest transversely on the rail ballast, considering
the rail direction (Isayenko et al, 2014).
Figure 8. Cross sectional representation of a ballast track
Malaysia’s rail construction is affected by social issues such as the population and the need
for human movement. This has influenced the construction of the airport Rail link, the Light Rapid
Transit, Mass rapid transit, the cable car and the monorail. The need to ferry people has led to the
creation of fast electric rails which travel at speeds of up to 300km/h.
In addition, topography is another crucial parameter. The railway has been affected by
severe weather conditions which include wind, lightning, rainfall and high temperatures. Strategic
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corridors have also played a crucial role in affecting the rail design for the purpose of ensuring as
much economic growth. This includes both for the purpose of ferrying passengers and goods to
ensure as much economic convenience as possible.
The Malaysia’s railways standards are as follows:
•
Rail Gauge: The gauge is set at 1435 mm.
•
Loading Gauge: UIC standards
•
Electrification: 25kV
•
Traffic: Right Hand
•
Rail: UIC 60 and UIC S49
•
Coupling: AAR couplers, Scharfenberg couplers (LRT, ERT, MRT, Monorail)
•
Brakes: Air Systems
Malaysia’s Rail network also stands out in various ways. One is the fact that the networks
have a covering in a huge part of the 11 states of Peninsular Malaysia. The Malaysian Railway
also connects to the Thai Railways which promises business to India, China and Myanmar should
proposed projects be completed. The country’s network comprises of monorail, heavy rail, airport
rail, LRT rail and funicular rail. The track has double track, high-speed and electrified rail as well
as standard and metre gage railway. The rail boasts a tourist attraction, Langkawi Cable car which
provides an aerial connection to Gunung Machinchang’s peak from the Oriental Village located at
Telik Burau. Malaysia’s railway is characterized by beautiful sceneries, from mountains, plains
and museum sites such as Kuala Lumpur.
The most relevant future railway projects in Malaysia are the construction of the new lines:
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Gemas – Johor Bahru: Double-tracking and electrification is scheduled to be complete by
2021. Tracks is 197 km in length.
-
King valley: 2nd phase expected to kick off in July 2017
-
Sarawak railway: This is a section of the Sarawak Corridor which is a 320 km line. Cost
or project time is yet to be made public
These projects are outlined in the maps presented in figures 9 and 10.
Figure 9. Proposed east coast rail
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Figure 10. KL-Singapore – High Speed projected Rail (Commence year – 2026) (Ong, 2016)
The Malaysian government took over the rail network after handing it over to conglomerate
Renong Berhad with the aim of privatizing the Railway network which failed due to financial crisis
(Dziauddin et al, 2013). The KTMB owns a subsidiary company, Multimodal Freight Sdn. Bhd
which manages various depots for containers in the country.
3. Comparison of the railway networks in the different countries
The following table presents the comparison of the main features of the railway networks
of the four selected countries.
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Oman
Saudi Arabia
Turkey
Malaysia
Existing railway Not yet
network
Yes
Yes
Yes
Length of either 2,135
existing
or
planned railway
network (km)
5,841
8,646
2,262
Axle load
30-32.4 ton
> 20 ton
10-23 ton
185,000
200,000
Electric
locomotives
Diesel
and
electric
locomotives
32.4 ton
Maximum traffic Data not
available
Track
components
Difference
design
yet 2,000,000
Diesel
locomotives
Diesel
locomotives
in Their
external Designed
to Use of tension High speed (up
aspect
is withstand high clamps in the to 300 km/h)
supposed to be speed sand
new tracks
characteristic
Main
design Sand
and Sand
and Economic
challenges
sandstorms, high sandstorms, high problems
temperature
temperature
Socioeconomic
problems
Standards
followed
UIC
European
standards
European
standards
UIC
Sand
Sand
Sand
Mountain
Dunes
Desert
Mountain
AREMA
Best
practice
standards
Landscape
salient features
Beach
Mountain
Projects under The
construction
network
Management
Statal
whole 11 new lines
Statal
3 new high- 3 new lines
speed lines
Statal
Statal
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4. Conclusions
The main characteristics of the railway network in different countries have been thoroughly
analyzed and compared. Their comparison has enabled the evaluation of how the different
economic, social and topographical aspects might affect the design of a new railway network. In
this regard, the analysis carried out pointed towards the specific challenges faced by the
engineering design of the railway networks in the different countries, and how each of these
challenges should be addressed to ensure the smooth progress of the project.
Taking this analysis into account, the main challenges that could be present in the design of a new
railway network can be summarized as:
-
Social problems, due to the lack of qualified staff
-
Economic problems, due to the lack of enough resources to pay for the necessary materials
to carry out the project. This is especially important in the case of developing countries
-
Topographical problems, due to the presence of especially harsh environments such as
deserts or high mountains that might difficult the selection of the optimal path for the
railway line under construction. In this regard, the engineer should also consider the need
to use specially designed materials that can resist either extremely high temperatures or the
impact of high-speed blowing sand during a sandstorm.
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References
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andrewgrantham.co.uk: http://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/tag/malaysia/
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May 29, 2017, from channelnewsasia.com: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/klsingapore-high-speed-rail-projected-to-start-around-2026-7945420
Giannakos, K., & Loizos, A. (2010). Evaluation of actions on concrete sleepers as design
loads–Influence of fastenings. International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 11(3), 197213.
Isayenko, E. P., Gridchin, A. M., Logvinenko, A. A., Bezrukov, M. V., Sharapov, S. N., &
Samoylov, M. I. (2014). Method of railroad sub-ballast of native soils construction.
Advances in Environmental Biology, 177-183.
Babalik, E. (2000). Urban rail systems: a planning framework to increase their success
(Doctoral dissertation, University of London).
Dziauddin, M. F., Alvanides, S., & Powe, N. A. (2013). Estimating the effects of light rail
transit (LRT) system on the property values in the Klang Valley, Malaysia: A hedonic
house price approach. Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences and Engineering), 61(1), 35-47.
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Amiril, A., Nawawi, A. H., Takim, R., & Latif, S. N. F. A. (2014). Transportation
infrastructure project sustainability factors and performance. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 153, 90-98.
Berhad, K. L. K. (2014). Annual report 2014. Accessed on March, 4.Grantham, A. (2009, June
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http://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/tag/malaysia/
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