Economy

China building world's largest high-speed rail network

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-04 14:41
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China will expand its high-speed rail network to be the world's largest in coming three years with a total length of 13,000 kilometers, according to Thursday's China Securities Journal.

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By the end of 2012, China would have more than 110,000 kilometers of operational railways, including 13,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, said Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways at a national meeting on rail construction.

China would bring 26,000 kilometers of new railways into operation from 2010 to 2012, including 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail, Liu said.

Based on the calculation that one kilometer of high-speed rail costs 100 million yuan (US$14.64 million), the 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail would cost more than 900 billion yuan, according to China Securities Journal.

China currently has about 3,300 kilometers of operational high-speed rail, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Last year, China completed two long distance high-speed railways, one between Wuhan and Guangzhou, and the other between Zhengzhou and Xi'an. Before that, China had built high-speed railways between Beijing and Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan, Qingdao and Jinan, Hefei and Wuhan, and Hefei and Nanjing.

A number of new high-speed railways are under construction, of which the Beijing-Shanghai line has a length of 1,318 km and a designed travel speed of 350 km/h.