Bullet trains form half of China's train services
By PTI | 2 Jul, 2014, 07.29PM IST
BEIJING: High-speed
bullet trains now make up more than half of China's rail services, highlighting the massive expansion by the government to improve connectivity.
The state-owned rail operator, China Railway Corp, which introduced a new service schedule to meet the booming demand from the public said, of the total 4,894 trains being operated in the country 2,660 were high-speed bullet trains running at speeds of more than 200 km per hour.
"The fact that China Railway Corp adjusts its operation plan every six months shows that the nation's rail network is expanding at an unprecedented speed," Zhu Jianping, deputy head of the bureau told state-run China Daily.
"Compared with the past, now almost all of the major parts used on our bullet trains are developed and manufactured by Chinese engineers," said
Ji Jialun, a railway expert at Beijing Jiaotong University.
Analysts, however, are of the opinion that security must be a top priority.
"Railway operators and authorities must pay more attention to the operational safety as they continue boosting the rail network," said Xu Guangjian, deputy dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University.
"In the near future, a bullet train will travel from the ultra cold northeastern provinces to eastern coastal regions that have warm and wet weather, which will pose a huge challenge to planning, maintenance and control personnel," he said.
He said the daily transport capacity of high-speed lines would be increased by 70,000
travellers, 3.8 per cent higher than in the past.
The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the busiest route in China, has transported 220 million passengers in the past three years, largely due to the high-speed service.
China has the longest high-speed railway network in the world with more than 10,000 km in operation and the country is actively promoting this technology to other countries, including Turkey, Thailand and the UK.
Bullet trains form half of China's train services - The Economic Times