China in talks to build network to India and Europe
SHANGHAI – Railway passengers will be able to travel from London to Beijing in just two days on a journey that would be almost as fast as by airplane under ambitious new plans from the Chinese.
China is in negotiations to build a high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains capable of running at more than 320 km/h within the next 10 years.
By using the Channel Tunnel, the network would eventually carry passengers from London to Beijing and then to Singapore, said Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China’s domestic high-speed railways.
A second project would carry trains through Russia to Germany and into the European railway system, and a third line would extend south to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.
Passengers could board a train in London and step off in Beijing, 8,159 kilometres away as the crow flies, in just two days. Flying time is about 10 hours. They could go on to Singapore, 9,768 km away, within three days.
“We are aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as aeroplanes,” Mr. Wang said. “The best-case scenario is that the three networks will be completed in a decade.”
Mr. Wang said Beijing was already in negotiations with 17 countries over the rail lines, which would also allow China to transport raw materials more efficiently.
“It was not China that pushed the idea to start with,” he said. “It was the other countries that came to us, especially India. These countries cannot fully implement the construction of a high-speed rail network and they hoped to draw on our experience and technology.”
China is in the middle of a $743-billion domestic railway expansion project that aims to build nearly 30,577 kilometres of new lines within five years.
The world’s fastest train, the Harmony Express, which has a top speed of nearly 400 km/h and links the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou, was unveiled last year. It can cover 1,060 km in three hours.
Mr. Wang said the route of the three lines had yet to be decided.
PDF This post was submitted by Malcolm Moore, The Daily Telegraph .
