The British government has pledged 38 billion pounds to improve the rail network, said Mark Wareing, the Minister-Counsellor and Strategy Director at the U.K. Trade & Investment (UKTI) for the British Embassy to China.

Officials of the UK Railway Industry Association came to Beijing in recent days to give an introduction about the U.K. rail market and its opportunities.

A strategic report on the U.K.'s demand for passenger trains shows that the range of growth that the country needs in this respect is 53 percent to 99 percent. Moreover, data show that the U.K.'s demand for electrified trains will be from 13,000 units to 19,000 units by 2042.

About 200,000 people work in the U.K. rail industry which is worth up to 12 billion pounds each year, according to Neil Walkerr, an official at the U.K. Railway Industry Association. The passengers make more than 135 million trips totaling 50 billion kilometers by train in the U.K.

As for the HS2 high-speed rail project, Jake Rudham emphasized that this project is still open to investment from Chinese companies despite the fact that the construction of the first stage of this project is totally funded by the U.K. government. These companies can make investment in many related programs such as building railway station and upgrading old locomotives.

Mark Wareing said that no limits are imposed on the Chinese companies when they invest in the construction of railways in the U.K. The Chinese companies can establish a company of their own, acquire U.K. companies or form a joint venture with U.K. companies to invest money in railway construction in the country.