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China No. 1 in high-speed rails - People's Daily Online July 02, 2010
The Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed train is seen at the Hongqiao station in Shanghai Thursday. The 300km/h train slashes travel times between the two cities. (CFP Photo)
A high-speed rail service linking Shanghai and Nanjing - one of China's most developed economic zones - opened to passengers Thursday, making China the world leader in terms of total high-speed rail lines.
The total length of rail lines in the country is currently about 6,920 kilometers.
But while the mammoth project trumpets China's ambitious 2-trillion-yuan ($293 billion) effort to speed up the country's railway system and boost the regional economy, it also raises concerns of whether it will become another white elephant if the service costs too much for travelers.
The trains, which shuttle between Shanghai and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, at speeds of around 350 kilometers per hour, faster than a Formula 1 racing car, will more than halve the traveling time between the two cities.
The service will cover the 301-kilometer route in just 73 minutes, carving 80 minutes off the previous time. Its 21 stops include the eight most prosperous cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, including Suzhou and Wuxi.
In the line's initial operation phase, 92 pairs of high-speed trains will operate on the route daily. The Ministry of Railways plans to raise the number to 120 to make the service as easily accessible as buses or subways.
The new line "will definitely become the big engine driving the regional modernization of the Yangtze River Delta," said ministry's spokesman Wang Yongping.
Statistics show that the Yangtze River Delta region, covering 2.2 percent of the country's territory, contributed more than 22.1 percent of China's gross domestic product last year.
An existing rail line along the route was established in 1908. It was one of the earliest rail lines in China and has become the busiest one in the world.
It is estimated that the total number of passengers traveling in the region will exceed 3 billion this year and 5.5 billion in 2020.
The new line is also driving up property prices along the route. According to the Nanjing-based Yangtze Evening Post, the prices of the second-hand houses around Suzhou's three stations along the line have surged 8 to 10 percent in recent months.
High speed, high price
However, as with many new high-speed rail lines, the higher price has become an issue of contention among the public.
Tickets for the full journey between Shanghai and Nanjing are priced at 146 yuan ($21.47) for sec-ond-class seats and 233 yuan for first class.
Li Zhixia, a passenger getting on the train in Nanjing Thursday, told the Global Times that she wouldn't take the high-speed train again after giving it a try, because it only cuts the travel time in half and is twice as expensive as the second-fastest trains that run the route at about 200 kilometers an hour.
Wang Guangshu, who was traveling between Changzhou and Nanjing, told the Global Times that he intended to buy a ticket for the second-fastest train Thursday morning but was given a ticket of the high-speed rail service instead.
"The service is almost the same as on the (slower) train, and it took almost the same time to reach my destination, since it's a short journey, but it cost 20 yuan more," he said.
But Yao Xueqing, a local resident of Wuxi, told the Global Times that the opening of the express railway is really convenient for business travelers, as it allows them to travel between the two cities in less than 1.5 hours, a similar commute to traveling across some large cities.
In response to the questions about ticket prices, Wang Yongping, the railway ministry's spokesman, said there are two voices on the price issue, with some believing it is too high while others say the journey price is moderate.
"The price will be subject to the test of the market. It is too early to make a conclusion now," Wang said.
Shi Qixin, a professor with the Institute of Transportation Engineering at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the construction of high-speed railways is in line with national economic development and the improvement of livelihood.
"The high-speed railway will offer strong competition with aviation and may force flight prices down," Shi predicted.
The traveling time of a flight between Shanghai and Nanjing is about 40 minutes, 33 minutes shorter than the high-speed rail service, but passengers will pay four times as much by air.
World's busiest
Chinese railways are the busiest in world, especially during the Spring Festival when millions of people head home for family reunion.
To solve the capacity shortage facing the lines between heavily populated major cities, China stepped up its railway-development program last year, promising to increase the passenger network to 12,000 kilometers by 2020. High-speed rail service is part of that effort.
The government will build 16,000 kilometers of high-speed rail lines to link the major cities across the country by 2020, with travel speeds averaging over 200 kilometers per hour.
When completed, the length will account for more than half of the total length of all the world's high-speed rail systems.
In December, a high-speed railway linking Wuhan and Guangzhou began operating, slashing travel time between Wuhan and Guangzhou from 10 hours to less than three hours.
The daily passenger capacity of the service increased to 83,820, with 87 percent of seats being sold.
A 1,318-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai line, set to open in 2012, will cut the trip between Beijing and Shanghai from 10 hours to five.
It's a 221-billion-yuan project, dubbed the most expensive program in Chinese history, exceeding even the cost of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, which cost 203.9 billion yuan.
However, Yin Kunhua, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, warned against using the rapid construction of high-speed railway lines across the country to make a good impression or to show off.
"There is a dangerous thought that we must have the best, the most advanced, which is not necessarily what we need currently," Yin noted. "We should consider efficiency as well as cost in the public investments, which usually lack scientific study beforehand."
Kang Juan and Liu Linlin contributed to this story
The Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed train is seen at the Hongqiao station in Shanghai Thursday. The 300km/h train slashes travel times between the two cities. (CFP Photo)
A high-speed rail service linking Shanghai and Nanjing - one of China's most developed economic zones - opened to passengers Thursday, making China the world leader in terms of total high-speed rail lines.
The total length of rail lines in the country is currently about 6,920 kilometers.
But while the mammoth project trumpets China's ambitious 2-trillion-yuan ($293 billion) effort to speed up the country's railway system and boost the regional economy, it also raises concerns of whether it will become another white elephant if the service costs too much for travelers.
The trains, which shuttle between Shanghai and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, at speeds of around 350 kilometers per hour, faster than a Formula 1 racing car, will more than halve the traveling time between the two cities.
The service will cover the 301-kilometer route in just 73 minutes, carving 80 minutes off the previous time. Its 21 stops include the eight most prosperous cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, including Suzhou and Wuxi.
In the line's initial operation phase, 92 pairs of high-speed trains will operate on the route daily. The Ministry of Railways plans to raise the number to 120 to make the service as easily accessible as buses or subways.
The new line "will definitely become the big engine driving the regional modernization of the Yangtze River Delta," said ministry's spokesman Wang Yongping.
Statistics show that the Yangtze River Delta region, covering 2.2 percent of the country's territory, contributed more than 22.1 percent of China's gross domestic product last year.
An existing rail line along the route was established in 1908. It was one of the earliest rail lines in China and has become the busiest one in the world.
It is estimated that the total number of passengers traveling in the region will exceed 3 billion this year and 5.5 billion in 2020.
The new line is also driving up property prices along the route. According to the Nanjing-based Yangtze Evening Post, the prices of the second-hand houses around Suzhou's three stations along the line have surged 8 to 10 percent in recent months.
High speed, high price
However, as with many new high-speed rail lines, the higher price has become an issue of contention among the public.
Tickets for the full journey between Shanghai and Nanjing are priced at 146 yuan ($21.47) for sec-ond-class seats and 233 yuan for first class.
Li Zhixia, a passenger getting on the train in Nanjing Thursday, told the Global Times that she wouldn't take the high-speed train again after giving it a try, because it only cuts the travel time in half and is twice as expensive as the second-fastest trains that run the route at about 200 kilometers an hour.
Wang Guangshu, who was traveling between Changzhou and Nanjing, told the Global Times that he intended to buy a ticket for the second-fastest train Thursday morning but was given a ticket of the high-speed rail service instead.
"The service is almost the same as on the (slower) train, and it took almost the same time to reach my destination, since it's a short journey, but it cost 20 yuan more," he said.
But Yao Xueqing, a local resident of Wuxi, told the Global Times that the opening of the express railway is really convenient for business travelers, as it allows them to travel between the two cities in less than 1.5 hours, a similar commute to traveling across some large cities.
In response to the questions about ticket prices, Wang Yongping, the railway ministry's spokesman, said there are two voices on the price issue, with some believing it is too high while others say the journey price is moderate.
"The price will be subject to the test of the market. It is too early to make a conclusion now," Wang said.
Shi Qixin, a professor with the Institute of Transportation Engineering at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the construction of high-speed railways is in line with national economic development and the improvement of livelihood.
"The high-speed railway will offer strong competition with aviation and may force flight prices down," Shi predicted.
The traveling time of a flight between Shanghai and Nanjing is about 40 minutes, 33 minutes shorter than the high-speed rail service, but passengers will pay four times as much by air.
World's busiest
Chinese railways are the busiest in world, especially during the Spring Festival when millions of people head home for family reunion.
To solve the capacity shortage facing the lines between heavily populated major cities, China stepped up its railway-development program last year, promising to increase the passenger network to 12,000 kilometers by 2020. High-speed rail service is part of that effort.
The government will build 16,000 kilometers of high-speed rail lines to link the major cities across the country by 2020, with travel speeds averaging over 200 kilometers per hour.
When completed, the length will account for more than half of the total length of all the world's high-speed rail systems.
In December, a high-speed railway linking Wuhan and Guangzhou began operating, slashing travel time between Wuhan and Guangzhou from 10 hours to less than three hours.
The daily passenger capacity of the service increased to 83,820, with 87 percent of seats being sold.
A 1,318-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai line, set to open in 2012, will cut the trip between Beijing and Shanghai from 10 hours to five.
It's a 221-billion-yuan project, dubbed the most expensive program in Chinese history, exceeding even the cost of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, which cost 203.9 billion yuan.
However, Yin Kunhua, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, warned against using the rapid construction of high-speed railway lines across the country to make a good impression or to show off.
"There is a dangerous thought that we must have the best, the most advanced, which is not necessarily what we need currently," Yin noted. "We should consider efficiency as well as cost in the public investments, which usually lack scientific study beforehand."
Kang Juan and Liu Linlin contributed to this story
. In any case, congrats guys.
