Railways on track for higher speed By Cao Desheng (China Daily) Updated: 2005-11-22 06:10
China is gearing up for the opening of a series of high-speed railways
throughout the country as it expands the infrastructure and trains drivers to
speed up the service.
Vice-Minister of Railways Hu Yadong told reporters on Sunday that express
trains with a speed of 200 kilometres per hour are expected to start running
next year, while those with a speed of 300 kilometres an hour will be used on
parts of the nation's railway lines.
Such an ambitious plan is supported by the introduction of 60 high-speed
railways from the Germany-based Siemens Transportation Systems of Siemens AG. A
contract worth 669 million euros (US$785 million) was signed in Berlin during a
state visit to Germany by President Hu Jintao a week ago.
The trains are to be used initially on the Beijing-Tianjin route beginning
2008 and extended to other high-speed routes later on, according to a press
release on the website of the German company.
The trains have a total length of 200 metres and can hold more than 600
passengers.
Insiders consider the agreement as an initial victory for the German
company's attempted dominance over its French rival Alstone and Japan's
Shinkansen in competing for the vast rail market.
According to the ministry's programme, China will build 10,000 kilometres of
new passenger railways and 2,000 kilometres of high-speed railways by 2020.
Although the ministry is slow in unveiling the construction plan of the
Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, competition for the huge project is
becoming increasingly intense among Japan's Shinkansen, France's TGV and
Germany's ICE - high-speed trains considered to have the most advanced
high-speed rail technology available in the world.
The railway, reported to measure more than 1,300 kilometres in length,
involves a 100 billion-yuan (US$ 12 billion) investment, seen as the second
largest project after the Three Gorges Project in terms of investment.
While building more rail tracks and trains, the Ministry of Railways has also
sent technicians abroad to study driving techniques for high-speed trains, in
efforts to increase their speed for the sixth time.
Sixty-two train drivers aged 28 to 41 have been selected from among the seven
local rail administrations.
The nation's latest railway speed increase was launched on April 18 last
year, with the speed on major lines raised to 160 kilometres per hour.
(China Daily 11/22/2005 page2)
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