New Railway Speed Envisaged by China

As is told by news sources from the National Railway Work Conference, about 2bn, 1bn and 500m yuan will be invested respectively by China for railway speed raising, guaranteeing safety of running trains and informationalization construction coming year. With these, China will likewise for the fourth time have a new countrywide speed raise by its railways in 2002.

To raise China's railway speed, a series of undertakings demanding less investment but with fast economic gains to be achieved have been planned and as things now stand with China's railways, an intensive study is being made on all key trunk lines of the country.

After three previous speed raises on April 1, 1997, October 1, 1998, and October 21, 2000, about 20,000km of railways including Beijing-Harbin, Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Jiulong, Lanzhou-Liangyunguang, and Zhejiang-Jiangxi in China have been run with a new speed.

However, there are still great potentials to be tapped by the country for railway speed raising. Through tests conducted on the Beijing-Zhengzhou Railway experts say there is still much room for a fourth railway speed raise to 200Km/h from present 140Km/h in China and that the country may further have a speed raise by a total of 10,000Km of its railways.



By PD Online Staff Huang Ying


People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/