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China 'considering' building high-speed rail line from Beijing to the United States

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China 'considering' building high-speed rail line from Beijing to the United States

Entire trip would take two days and run through Siberia

PUBLISHED : Friday, 09 May, 2014, 10:26am
UPDATED : Friday, 09 May, 2014, 10:35am

The Guardian


The project - nicknamed the “China-Russia plus America line”- would run for 13,000km, about 3,000km further than the Trans-Siberian Railway. Photo: AP

China is considering plans to build a high-speed railway line to the US, the country’s official media has reported.

The proposed line would begin in north-east China and run up through Siberia, pass through a tunnel underneath the Pacific Ocean then cut through Alaska and Canada to reach the continental US, according to a report in the state-run Beijing Times newspaper.

Crossing the Bering Strait in between Russia and Alaska would require about 200km (125 miles) of undersea tunnel, the paper said, citing Wang Mengshu, a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

“Right now we’re already in discussions. Russia has already been thinking about this for many years,” Wang said.

The project - nicknamed the “China-Russia plus America line” - would run for 13,000km, about 3,000km further than the Trans-Siberian Railway. The entire trip would take two days, with the train travelling at an average of 350kmh (220mph).

The reported plans leave ample room for scepticism. No other Chinese railway experts have come out in support of the proposed project. Whether the government has consulted Russia, the US or Canada is also unclear. The Bering Strait tunnel alone would require an unprecedented feat of engineering - it would be the world’s longest undersea tunnel - four times the length of the Channel Tunnel which connects France and England.

According to the state-run China Daily, the tunnel technology is “already in place” and will be used to build a high-speed railway between the south-east province of Fujian and Taiwan. “The project will be funded and constructed by China,” it said. “The details of this project are yet to be finalised.”

The Beijing Times listed the China-US line as one of four international high-speed rail projects currently in the works. The first is a line that would run from London via Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Kiev and Moscow, where it would split into two routes, one of which would run to China through Kazakhstan and the other through eastern Siberia.

The second line would begin in the far-western Chinese city of Urumqi and then run through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey to Germany. The third would begin in the south-western city of Kunming and end in Singapore. The routes are under various stages of planning and development, the paper said.

China 'considering' building high-speed rail line from Beijing to the United States | South China Morning Post
 
China proposes high speed rail from China to the US

High%20Speed%20Rail%20SH-BJ12.jpg


China Daily has reported that China is planning to build a high-speed rail from China to the United States.

The proposed journey begins in China's northeast and spans across Siberia to reach Bering Strait. It then crosses the Pacific Ocean by an undersea tunnel before reaching Alaska, then Canada, before finally arriving at its destination in the US.

Not convinced? The technology to build an undersea tunnel that stretches across 200km, required to cross Bering Strait, already exists due to the proposed project to build a high-speed rail between Fujian and Taiwan.

Running at an average speed of 350km per hour, passengers will apparently be able to complete the journey in under two days.

Details are yet to be finalised but the project is yet another in a string of ambitious plans for high-speed rail. China to Singapore via Laos, China to Singapore via Kunming, China to India, China to England, you name it and there's a plan to get there by high-speed rail.

These plans have not been welcomed by all, with rare protests staged in Beijing in 2012 resisting the construction of high-speed rail projects.

All in all, if there was any country to achieve such a feat, it would probably be China, with its command of such a tireless labour force.

[Image via Flickr]

By Mandy Liang

China proposes high speed rail from China to the US: Shanghaiist
 
I wish something like this happens. :lol:

I have a phobia of planes and hate traveling in them, please bring these into existence. :D

Let the US do the safety regulation.
 
Quite an undertaking.. but if China can do it, I say go for it. There would of course have to be some very serious safety regulation.
 
In the footsteps of the ancients...

That's how early humans first reached the Americas, apparently...
 
No, Boeing and Airbus will not allow it.
 
We are up to big things。

Some may realize,some may not。

A country and its people need to have dreams and ambitions。:azn:

IMO, if you wish to dream dream of a Chinese Google/GE/Intel instead. Spending vast resources on a railway line seems utterly silly to me especially when air travel is so much easier. Just my 2 cents.
 
Bad idea. Flying is faster in this case. Chinese engineers should focus more energy on ws15.
 
I'd rather fly then travel 200km under the sea bed. But it would be seriously cool if it were to happen. :dance3:
 
IMO, if you wish to dream dream of a Chinese Google/GE/Intel instead. Spending vast resources on a railway line seems utterly silly to me especially when air travel is so much easier. Just my 2 cents.
100% agree with you .
 
China can do anything. They have resources, no political opposition, their bank balance is high. Why not?
 
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