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China’s bullet trains facilitate market integration and mitigate the cost of megacity growth

July 2014

Expansion and Renovation of Taiyuan Station


Taiyuan, Shanxi Province

Mass constructions at station front and connceting roads, including
  • adding Station front squares (East Square and West Square)
  • Underground bus station
  • Underground parking
  • Metro
  • Road renovation





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A Closer Look at the Chinese High Speed Rail Juggernaut: The Chinese closer to Elon Musk's Hyperloop than the US (Part 2)

The below is a continuation of my previous article on the same topic. In this iteration, we will look at how China has developed a globally competitive rail industry.

Chinese factories will produce the rolling stock and the Chinese ministry of railways will use its strong project management capabilities to manage projects. Chinese rolling stock will compete worldwide for orders and will have the comparative advantage of low pricing. An average kilometer of HSR track in China costs between $4.8 million USD:enjoy: (Jiaoji Line) to $32.7 million USD:-) (Zhengxi Line), which is significantly less than the estimated $380 million USD:hitwall: to $ 625 million USD:devil: it will cost for laying down the British HSR2 project.

No wonder the British Prime Minister is talking to China in order to bring their technology and investment to fuel UK’s high-speed rail ambitions. Indeed, the world has come full circle – given that the Brits invented railways and exported it worldwide in the 18th century.

China also has plans to extend its HSR network to reach Europe as well as to Singapore through Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia. Construction of the Lanzhou–Urumqi High-Speed Railway (length 1,776 kilometers) is expected to reach completion by the end of 2014 and will be instrumental to reach its aspiration to connect to Western Europe. China is also conversing with 17 countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Kazakhstan to lay HSR tracks with its own capital for the exchange of natural resources from them. Once implemented, the networks will establish rail’s dominance in the freight modal share between Asia and Europe, as China does not want to move containers by ship in future (and have them accessed by Somalian pirates), rather sending these by rail to Europe, cutting the length of travel from the 35 to 45 days it takes by sea to 15 to 20 days.

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China is forecasted to provide funding and cheap finance for many major projects around the world, notably in Africa. Most of these will have some sort of barter agreement to provide China with its required essential supply of raw materials to fuel its GDP growth.

The Chinese get that rail, and in particular HSR, is cutting-edge technology, and its vast ecosystem and infrastructure needs provide them with diverse business growth opportunities. Expansion of rail networks involves the stimulus of many different industries. Consumption of steel, copper and cement are key indicators of this industry’s growth. Approximately 10 tonnes of copper are required for every kilometer of dual-track catenary system. Construction of railway infrastructure in China is expected to increase the demand for steel by eight million tonnes every year. Frost & Sullivan rail analysts estimate a total steel requirement of 2.1 million tonnes and an excess of 90,000 tonnes of copper for all the HSR projects under construction around the world. Information technology (IT) is an integral part of the 21st century rail network. It offers services such as condition monitoring, security, surveillance, data handling, ticketing, passenger information systems and much more to the rail environment. Industries that are involved in construction safety (signs, helmets, etc.) are becoming mobilized. Even farmers supplying fabric and raw materials are benefitting. The rail industry is boosting trade in the form of imports of material or technology which bring with it dialogue and social interaction. Track maintenance and project management firms from countries with HSR experience are now bidding for work in other countries. Construction of a rail infrastructure starts a chain reaction that drives demand across the value chains and construction tooling, spare parts and service providers see higher volumes of business. So huge is the opportunity that equipment manufacturers like Caterpillar have been busy making acquisitions. It is believed that rail investments can make a 2 percent to 3 percent contribution to country’s GDP.

Innovation is the creativity that ships. USA not only needs to play catch up with the rest of the world but needs to innovate new technologies and systems for the future; such as Elon Musk's
Hyperloop. Chinese innovation in high speed rail will soon be seen and experienced in nations all over the world. Chinese railways will soon be as big as the combined sizes of rail lines like Deutsche Bahn, DB Schenker, SNCF, Keolis and many others. So, forget the Chinese dragon — watch out for the Chinese high-speed rail juggernaut.

Shyam Raman, Frost & Sullivan’s global rail program manager, contributed to this article.

A Closer Look at the Chinese High Speed Rail Juggernaut: The Chinese closer to Elon Musk's Hyperloop than the US (Part 2) - Forbes

 
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Third Beijing-Tianjin HSR proposed :coffee::hitwall::enjoy:

The current two HSR connections, Beijing-Tianjin HSR and Beijing-Shanghai HSR have reached the capacity limit. Third HSR to connect the two cities is proposed by Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei local government。


Jinan-Qingdao HSR construction to start by year end

Jinan-Qingdao HSR started environmental assessment. This will be the first HSR mainly invested by local parties.

Jinan-Qingdao HSR: 308.5km, 9 stations, 52.2 bln yuan

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by 高铁见闻 and bigdog
 
I will not be happy if the govt use my money for building the high-speed rail for rich man than average person ...
can tell that's the govt investment or private investment ?
Anyway, the benefit of this high-speed rail is basically not for majority of Chinese people !!!

Train No. Departs Arrives Duration Distance(km) Seat Fares(RMB) Hard Sleeper Fares(RMB) Soft Sleeper Fares(RMB)

T36/T37Zhengzhou 02:43 Guangzhou 19:23 16h40m 1605 190/- 325/337/348 507/530
T266/T263Zhengzhou 03:35 Guangzhou 18:58 15h23m 1605 190/ -325/337/348 507/530

I dont believe the high speed rail will have same fare with low speed ( 100km / h ) rail as above. 530 vs 600 RMB for 1605 km ...
Well, it is so sad to know the truth that even the bottom class in China can often been seen in High Speed trains. It is not luxurious at all, at least not for the economic class tickets. And Nobody takes a train every day, unless you mean the metropolitan railway.

How many percent of traffic volume for bullet train ?
Is its price high or normal ?? in comparing to air ticket ?
2.5 x conventional train ticket ... quite high , ??

I think high speed train must compete with lower speed train by performance ..
that's unclear to say what's better ...

Especially true to an average income lever country like China ...

In Japan, highspeed show its superior performance because Japanese hourly wages much higher ...

How much a normal worker or office in China earn for 1 hour ?
If it's not too high then why they must save 30min - 1 hour of travelling by paying high for highspeed?
1st of all, clearly the cost of building the high speed railway in China is lower than that in Japan, due to many aspects of reasons. So as to the tickets, I don't know, but it should be cheaper in China.When it comes to a Cost Benefit Analysis, even if the state owned railway company will lose money in the first a few years or decades, it is worthwhile since it brings priceless value to the economy. Time is money, I will regret if you cannot understand that simple thing.
 
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My house is just 5 minutes drive from this building:chilli::cheesy:

really?! Cool, I'm in the city too, I'm about say 30-a hour away from the station. Can't remember. I seen the apartments around there, not bad.
 
really?! Cool, I'm in the city too, I'm about say 30-a hour away from the station. Can't remember. I seen the apartments around there, not bad.
Holy! Where are you living now . My house is at HuaNan square.
 
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