China slows down, but still continues

[lpetrich]

California High Speed Rail Blog » China, India Continue HSR Expansion Plans

China's High-speed Rail Cautiously Back on Track
Passengers are gradually returning to China's HSR lines after the Wenzhou accident.

n response to the fatal accident, China slowed down work on new lines, conducted nationwide safety checks and ordered train to cut speeds -- some of the lines have cut train speeds to less than 200 kilometers per hour.

In late May, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) told Xinhua that only 2,322 kilometers of new high-speed lines would open this year, down from a plan of seven high-speed lines totaling 3,500 kilometers in March, and that the opening of the remaining lines could be postponed.

They plan to open:

• Beijing - Wuhan, 1125 km, 350 km/h / 300 km/h, 10h to 4h
• Wuhan - Yichang, 293 km, 200 km/h
• Harbin - Shenyang - Dalian, 904 km, 9h to 3h

That looks like all of those 2322 km of HSR route.

Beijing - Wuhan will connect to the existing Wuhan - Shenzhen high-speed line, which stops 26 km from Hong Kong. That remaining segment is now under construction and should open in 2016. The total Beijing - Hong Kong route length will be 2229 km.

China set itself a target to raise 500 billion yuan (79.4 billion U.S.dollars) for both high-speed and conventional line development this year. But in the first four months, the MOR only invested 89.6 billion yuan, down 48.3 percent year-on-year.

Debt has remained high in the railway sector. The MOR, the main investor in China's railway projects, reported a loss of 7 billion yuan in the first quarter, with its debt-to-asset ratio standing at around 60 percent.

The Ministry of Railways is now inviting private investors to participate.

Seems like they've been building a bit too fast.

China HSR map in Wikipedia: File:Eastern Asia HSR2011.svg

[morris&essex4ever]

I hope China's not building lines just for the sake of it. Is it true that the HSR trains are not drawing as many riders as they expected?

[george matthews]

I hope China's not building lines just for the sake of it. Is it true that the HSR trains are not drawing as many riders as they expected?

No. A cult paper (Falun Gong) claimed that trains were sparsely filled but this was not true. All the lines cover areas where the traditional lines are already over-loaded.

[Albany Rider]

If opening only 2000 kilometers of high-speed passenger rail lines is slowing down, I wish we were slowing down in America. Olympic medals are nice, but we need higher speed passenger rail here and now.

Tony