Posted on 03/17/2010 8:59:20 PM PDT by B-Chan
China is exploring the possibility of extending its high-speed train network as far as Europe, potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days.
Officials hope to see the project completed over the next ten years, enabling passengers to travel the roughly 8,000 kilometre journey at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour.
Two lines to Europe are reportedly being considered under the proposals, one passing through India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, while a second would head to Germany via Russia. Exact routes are currently undecided however. A third line would extend south from China to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.
Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China's domestic high-speed railways said this month that work on the Southeast Asia line had already begun.
"We have also already carried out the prospecting and survey work for the European network, and central and eastern European countries are keen for us to start," Mr Wang said.
Chinese officials in Brussels were more cautious however. "I understand we want to improve our rail networks, potentially as far as Europe, but whether they will be high speed or not is yet to be determined," said one source.
Financing the project appears to be the main question, with China offering to bankroll the Burmese line in exchange for the country's rich reserves of lithium, a metal used in batteries.
"We will use government money and bank loans, but the railways may also raise financing from the private sector and also from the host countries," said Mr Wang, indicating the new lines would also be used to carry freight.
European experts say the current low maritime transport costs make it harder to justify an EU-China rail line on commercial grounds however. With global trade seemingly unstoppable in early 2007, ship builders were receiving record orders. But the subsequent financial crisis and global economic slump led to a 12 percent fall in world trade flows last year, according to WTO figures
"The availability of good infrastructure is pivotal to the growth of trade between nations," said Michael Clausecker, director-general of the Association of the European Rail Industry (UNIFE).
"However, whether this is the case for the EU and China is questionable as there is a huge amount of maritime capacity, with more expected in the coming years," he told EUobserver.
China is currently in the middle of a vast railway expansion project that aims to build nearly 30,500 kilometres of new railways in the next five years, connecting all its major cities with high-speed lines.
The world's fastest train, the Harmony Express, was unveiled in the country last year. Wholly Chinese-built, but using technology from Siemens and Kawasaki, the train is capable of a top speeds approaching 400 km/h.
China is exploring the possibility of extending its high-speed train network as far as Europe, potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days. Officials hope to see the project completed over the next ten years, enabling passengers to travel the roughly 8,000 kilometre journey at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour. China is currently in the middle of a vast railway expansion project that aims to build nearly 30,500 kilometres of new railways in the next five years, connecting all its major cities with high-speed lines. China's internal high speed rail plans were reported here along with a comparison of the US high speed rail plans
NY Times reports China will spend $88 billion constructing intercity rail lines, the highest priority in the plan. It spent $44 billion last year and just $12 billion as recently as 2004.
The government has nearly finished the construction of a high-speed rail route from Beijing to Shanghai at a cost of $23.5 billion — almost equal to the price of the entire Three Gorges hydroelectric dam project on the Yangtze River. The authorities recently disclosed that they had 110,000 workers laboring to finish the route as quickly as possible.
Two lines to Europe are reportedly being considered under the proposals, one passing through India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, while a second would head to Germany via Russia. Exact routes are currently undecided however. A third line would extend south from China to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.
Financing the project appears to be the main question, with China offering to bankroll the Burmese line in exchange for the country's rich reserves of lithium, a metal used in batteries.
"We will use government money and bank loans, but the railways may also raise financing from the private sector and also from the host countries," said Mr Wang, indicating the new lines would also be used to carry freight.
European experts say the current low maritime transport costs make it harder to justify an EU-China rail line on commercial grounds however.
***
FURTHER READING Network Rail has proposed a new £34bn ($55bn) high-speed railway line linking Scotland and London by 2030.
High speed rail is displacing short haul (less than 3 hour) plane routes
High-speed railways will connect all of China’s provincial capitals and cities with more than 500,000 citizens by 2020, serving more than 90 percent of the population, the Ministry of Railways said.
Times Online UK: Continental Europe now has 3,600 miles of high-speed line in operation, with a further 2,000 under construction. China will have 6,000 miles open by 2012.
NY Times: China is investing $292.9 billion (2 trillion RMB) in a nationwide high-speed, energy efficient rail network.
Continental Europe: 3,600 miles of high-speed line, 2,000 under construction.
China: 30,500 km of new railways under comstruction, will connect all major cities with high-speed lines. 6,000 miles open by 2012.
U.S.: No high speed rail lines. None planned.
Silk Railroad?
Obama wants to throw a trillion at “choo choo trains” over the next century.
I just hope to gawd we don’t do it, its such a money losing proposition.
Parisians is already preparing the welcome parade for their now overlords.
Twenty years from now, if current trends continue, gas will be strictly rationed, our streets will be lined with rusting, useless cars, and the remaining Interstate highways will be “for official use only”.
Those choo-choo trains will still be running.
“potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days.”
And why would you take a two-day train-trip to a destination you can reach in just hours by airplane (and probably for a lower price as well)??????
It was modern commercial and passenger airplane travel that ended the popularity of the “orient express” as much as changed geopolitical factors. I don’t think an offer of a “high speed” two-day trip will change the situation that much. “High speed” rail, at present maximum rail speeds is more hype and “nationalist pride” that economically sound, in most cases (in most cases no different and no better, in economic fundamentals, than the Concorde supersonic airliner).
If they have any fuel/power for them.
1. Many restrooms
2. Better sightseeing
3. Meals served hot, and on real dishes
4. Sleep overnight in a bed with sheets and pillows instead of in a seat; wake up at destination feeling human
5. CLUB CAR
6. Freedom to get up, stretch, walk about instead of being strapped down for hours
7. Possibility of meeting people, making friends
8. Luggage stays with you the entire time
9. Impossibility of terrorists driving train into heavily populated skyscrapers
10. Passengers not manhandled like meat by TSA retards
11. Judy Garland sang about the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; never mentioned ValuJet
Not a bad idea.
We can have some Uighurs,Tibetans over in Paris and Rome.
I know how we can help these people put this together; send our lawyers and activists to assist with the paperwork related to environmental impacts and emdangered species along the route. let’s see; how much national debt can we settle by shipping a lawyer to China? I’m thinking we can value the exports just like the stimulus package; $300K per lawyer?
Trains run on electricity. Most electricity in the U.S. is generated using fuels other than gasoline. After the Iran-Israeli war renders most of the Mideast radioactive, gasoline will become scarce and restricted for “official use only” in the U.S. Electricity will continue to flow.
Obama has already flatly stated he will shut down coal power plants.
Where will the electricity come from?
Well, in place of NASA and the space program (loss of 23,000 central FL jobs with planned cuts), Obama likes a high-speed “Boondoggle Special” train from Orlando to Tampa. Will a US company get the contract?
Nuclear energy.
We aren’t going to be building any more nuclear plants for quite a while.
Russia would be the best route, as they are currently building high speed rail routes within the country. Furthermore, you would have only one sovereign country/bloc to go through.
It was modern commercial and passenger airplane travel that ended the popularity of the “orient express” as much as changed geopolitical factors
That was back when traveling by air was fast, efficient, comfortable and enjoyable.
Today air travel sucks, period. It takes me about 3 hours less to drive 1,000 miles then it does to fly taking into account all the BS you have to go through now just to get on the plane and get in the air. In driving it I arrive feeling alot more "human" then if I would have flown, there are excellent places to stop and eat along the way, my car is economical, reliable and comfortable, it costs me less to drive then to fly (with all that entails) and I have my own vehicle when I get there.
The next time I have to go to the UK I will not be flying, I will go by ship. I have the time and the cost is comparable to flying business class. The cost of a Deluxe Balcony Stateroom on the Queen Mary $3,300 roundtrip, the average cost of a business class fare is $3,000. I will never fly cattle car class ever again on a transatlantic flight-it just isn't worth the pain.
There are proposals for over twenty new reactors currently pending here in the USA. 17 combined construction and operating licences for these have already been applied for. Some analysts predict that up to 8 new reactors will be on line by 2020, three here in Texas alone. 1
I wanna get drunk at 300 mph on the Disoriented Express.
What you said. I’m looking forward to retiring not because I don’t like working but because of the flying my job entails. I think sides of beef have a more humane experience.
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