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Roundup: China's Railway Construction Grow Rapidly in Past Five Years
The total length of China's railway lines will increase by 6,000 km over the last five years to reach 68,000 km by the end of 2000, a spokesman from the Ministry of Railways said Friday, December 15.
During the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) period, railway construction in China has reached a historical record. The industry has fulfilled capital construction of 246 billion yuan, double that in the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, said Ren Xigui, spokesman of the Ministry of Railways (MOR), at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council.
During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, China has built 5,700 km of railway lines and 4,300 km of existing lines electrified. Of the new lines, 4,100 km are double-tracked, Ren added.
Statistics show that a turnover of 1,907.8 billion passenger-km has been completed in the five years, 14.7 percent higher than that of the Eighth Five-Year Plan period. A turnover of 6,409.1 billion-km of cargo has been carried, up 7.4 percent.
The railways have also been turned from a loss-making to a profit-making business during the period. Railway revenue totaled 461.5 billion yuan, increasing by 71.4 percent, with an average annual increase rate of 11.6 percent.
According to Ren, to increase the railway transport market share and meet market demands, three 'speed-raises' were implemented for railway lines in China in 1997, 1998 and 2000.
The highest speed reached by passenger trains running on the Guanzhou-Shenzhen line is 200 km/h and the highest speed of passenger trains operating on the three trunk lines of Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Harbin and Beijing-Shanghai is 160 km/h. Speeds have been raised for nearly 10,000 km of railway lines in total.
The spokesman also revealed that China will open its railway cargo service sector to foreign competition once it enters the World Trade Organization (WTO).
As to the country's railway construction during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, Ren said that China will continue to enlarge the scale of the railway network, speed up railway construction in west China, and strengthen the railway network of the eight longitudinal and eight lateral lines.
The eight longitudinal lines are Beijing-Harbin, the corridor along the eastern coastline, Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Kowloon, Beijing-Guangzhou, Dalian-Zhanjiang, Baotou-Liuzhou and Lanzhou-Kunming.
The eight lateral lines are Beijing-Lanzhou, the north corridor for coal transport, the south corridor for coal transport, the Euro-Asian continental railway bridge, Nanjing-Xi'an, the corridor along the Yangtze River, Shanghai-Kumming and the southwest corridor leading to the ocean.
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