The long-awaited Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is expected
to begin construction soon, Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said
yesterday.
He made the announcement at a national conference on railway
innovation, but did not specify a date.
With a cruising speed of 300 kph and a top speed of 350 kph, the
1,320 km-rail link will shorten travel time between the two cities
from 13 hours to less than 5.
The project has been on the drawing board for a decade and was
expected to begin last year and start operations in 2010, but was
postponed until now. The minister didn't explain why.
The Beijing-Shanghai railway was initially estimated to cost 130
billion yuan (US$17.2 billion), but insiders said the growing price
of real estate and resettlement costs might increase the project to
170 billion yuan.
Liu said China plans to master the technological aspects of
building and operating high-speed railways before 2010. It was one
of the 10 goals set by the ministry for its 11th Five-Year period
(2006-10).
Another aim is include developing 350 kph bullet trains and
upgrading safety technologies, Liu said.
Once these aims are fulfilled, the ministry will be able to
provide a fast, safe and comfortable travel experience on 7,000 km
of new track that is due to be completed by 2010, running trains at
speeds of up to 300 kph. Building 300 kph railways for
Beijing-Tianjin, Wuhan-Guangzhou, and Zhengzhou-Xi'an are at the
planning stage.
China owns the intellectual property rights to laying
concrete-bed rail tracks, Liu said. On ordinary tracks 300 kph
trains can kick up debris that is a danger to people.
Liu said though China's ability to build railway bridges and
tunnels in mountainous areas is world class, technologies relating
to 300 kph railways need improvement. More effort is needed, he
said.
In the meantime the ministry would import advanced technologies
from abroad, Liu said. "We aim at the world's top-notch
technologies."
In April the ministry announced it had mastered the technologies
to raise train speeds to 200 kph on about 12,000 km of existing
rail lines.
(China Daily September 10, 2007)