China's Cut-Throat Railway Revolution

[FarCenter]

By Wieland Wagner

China is spending mountains of money to expand its country's high-speed railway network and manufacture the world's fastest trains. But do its ambitions in the railway sector justify how these goals are being pursued -- and the risks they might ultimately pose?

With their elegant, white-and-blue exteriors, the super-high-speed trains lined up on the factory floor glitter like a school of barracudas. The opened front panels of the locomotives gape like hungry jaws as technicians in beige uniforms tend to what's inside.


Deputy chief engineer Lu Renyuan, 48, smiles proudly. These newly assembled bullet trains will soon leave the China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock (CSR) factory here in the northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao to race along new high-speed tracks at speeds of up to 350 kph (217 mph) -- in other words, faster than any other train line in the world. Similar trains already race back and forth between such major cities as Wuhan and Guangzhou, shortening the travel time between them from 11 hours to three.

These trains and their railways are only one step along the way in China's ongoing and ambitious race to catch up with its competitors. By focusing on incorporating foreign rail technology since 2004, the country has grown to become the most serious competitor to companies -- such as the German engineering giant Siemens -- that used to run laps around it when it came to such technologies.

At the moment, Western companies are still proudly showcasing their technology at the 2010 World Expo that just opened in Shanghai. They're still hoping for more contracts worth billions. And, as Siemens did at the expo's opening, they're still giving polite public thanks for being considered "an integral part of the Chinese economy."

Even so, CSR is simultaneously busy at work developing its own trains that can travel 380 kph (236 mph). The plan is for these new super-speedy trains to shorten the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) stretch between Beijing and Shanghai from roughly 10 to just four hours by 2011.

<SNIP>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,692969,00.html

[theoldman]

1. I made that trip about 15 years ago and it took about 24 hours.

Of course it made several stops along the way and I believe we had a steam locomotive. Today the trip may be non-stop with a diesel locomotive.