Rail speed-up barely helps cargo transport
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-05-11 22:49

Despite steady growth in freight capacity, China's overloaded railway system has found it difficult to keep up with the increasing freight demand, said Wu Qiang, director of the freight bureau of Ministry of Railways.

"The railway freight system is under increasing pressure and a great number of trunk lines have been operating at full or above capacity," Wu said.

The latest acceleration of railways since April 18 was expected to speed up the sluggish cargo transport system and help increase the nation's freight capacity by 3 per cent, according to Ministry of Railways.

However, the speed increase seems to have been not very effective in alleviating the strained conditions on the rails, with most sections of the Beijing-Guangzhou and Lanzhou-Lianyungang railways being used at above 90 per cent of their capacity, or 100 per cent in a number of sections. The demand on the Beijing-Shanghai railway has exceeded capacity by 50 per cent, according to Wu.

The Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway, a major coal transport route with a designed capacity of 100 million tons, actually carried 120 million tons of coal last year and is predicted to transport 150 million tons this year,he said.

Statistics from Ministry of Railways indicate the daily demand for cars has surged to 300,000 in recent months, up from last year's daily average of 160,000. However, the rail network can handle less than 100,000 cars a day.

Because of intense rail freight transport, a railway cargo transport company near Guang'anmen Railway Station -- a major container transport base in Beijing -- has delayed a great many services and lost many customers, China News Week quoted an official with the company as saying.

Because goods can't be transported to target destinations in time via railways, many customers have to resort to truck transport, the official surnamed Wu said.

Due to strained freight capacity, grain, oil and timber produced in Northeast China's fertile lands are unable to be transported to other parts of the country as quickly as needed.

According to Ministry of Railways, a sixth massive acceleration of railways will be carried out next year to improve the railway's transport efficiency, when trains on some major trunk lines will be running at the speed of 200 kilometres per hour.

However, experts doubt the effect of another speed increase on the strained freight capacity, since acceleration is not limitless.

Fundamental reforms must be implemented in the nation's railway industry so that rail development can meet the demands of the nation's rapid economic growth, said He Bangmo, a researcher with China Academy of Railway Sciences.

The railway ministry has mapped out a programme centreing around construction of a railway network to elevate the nation's railway transport capacity.

According to the programme, by the end of 2020, the total railways available for transport will be increased to 100,000 kilometres from the current 73,000 kilometres.

In addition, passenger and freight transportation will be partly separated, according to the long-term plan.

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