China joins club of bullet train nations
Thursday, April 19, 2007
AT 5.38am sharp yesterday, the sparkling white, futuristic No D460 train departed Shanghai Station, heralding a new era of high-speed rail travel in China.
Reaching speeds of up to 250km an hour, the sleek machine covered the 112km to the neighbouring city of Suzhou in 39 minutes, cutting the journey time nearly in half.
With it, China also joined a small group of the likes of Japan, the United States and most of the European Union, running bullet trains.
"It felt like we were travelling on an airplane," 78-year-old Shanghai resident Chen Lijuan was quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency as saying. "In the past it took more than an hour to get here."
The carriages were spotless, with the seats striped blue and red looking like those on an aircraft as passengers — a mixture of students, families and businessmen on the Beijing-Tianjin route — settled down for the trip, an AFP photographer said.
In keeping with the high-tech image, the trains support WiFi services for those with laptop commuters and other mobile devices wanting to keep in touch.
The Ministry of Railways told AFP yesterday that 52 trains have been deployed on services around China aimed at alleviating overcrowding on what is still the nation's most important form of transport.
By the end of the year, the ministry said 108 more trains will be added.
Liu Dongwei, a driver on the Shanghai-Suzhou line, said China's train technology had come of age, recalling how only a decade ago average train speeds were less than 50 kilometres an hour.
"My job has become easier — more like operating an airplane," Liu, 38, said.
China, now the world's fourth-largest economy, is keen to show off the new bullet trains as evidence that it can develop its own technology in key sectors.
But they are still mainly built abroad on the basis of technology transfer agreements with industry heavy-hitters such as Japan's Mitsubishi-Kawasaki, Canada's Bombardier, German giant Siemens and France's Alstom.
The debut of China bullet trains on major lines such as Shanghai to Hangzhou, and Beijing to Tianjin, comes after months of testing the locomotives at normal speeds.
It is expected that the trains will expand national railway passenger capacity by 18 per cent, or 340,000 seats a day, alleviating ticket shortages, especially during holidays.
However, currently only 6,000km of track can accommodate the high-speed trains, with most restricted to of 160km an hour on 14,000km of sub-standard track. Until upgrades are made, trains will be forced to chug along at 120km per hour over another 22,000km.
Nevertheless by 2020, China hopes 13,000km of track, or about one-fifth of the nation's current 77,000km, will be able to handle bullet trains.
A drawback for the moment is that fares on the new services are nearly 50 per cent more than current express trains.
"Tickets are quite expensive," said one passenger, who paid 42 yuan (US$5.43) on the bullet service between Beijing and Tianjin.
The usual price on the fastest express train on the same line is 30 yuan. AFP
Reaching speeds of up to 250km an hour, the sleek machine covered the 112km to the neighbouring city of Suzhou in 39 minutes, cutting the journey time nearly in half.
With it, China also joined a small group of the likes of Japan, the United States and most of the European Union, running bullet trains.
"It felt like we were travelling on an airplane," 78-year-old Shanghai resident Chen Lijuan was quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency as saying. "In the past it took more than an hour to get here."
The carriages were spotless, with the seats striped blue and red looking like those on an aircraft as passengers — a mixture of students, families and businessmen on the Beijing-Tianjin route — settled down for the trip, an AFP photographer said.
In keeping with the high-tech image, the trains support WiFi services for those with laptop commuters and other mobile devices wanting to keep in touch.
The Ministry of Railways told AFP yesterday that 52 trains have been deployed on services around China aimed at alleviating overcrowding on what is still the nation's most important form of transport.
By the end of the year, the ministry said 108 more trains will be added.
Liu Dongwei, a driver on the Shanghai-Suzhou line, said China's train technology had come of age, recalling how only a decade ago average train speeds were less than 50 kilometres an hour.
"My job has become easier — more like operating an airplane," Liu, 38, said.
China, now the world's fourth-largest economy, is keen to show off the new bullet trains as evidence that it can develop its own technology in key sectors.
But they are still mainly built abroad on the basis of technology transfer agreements with industry heavy-hitters such as Japan's Mitsubishi-Kawasaki, Canada's Bombardier, German giant Siemens and France's Alstom.
The debut of China bullet trains on major lines such as Shanghai to Hangzhou, and Beijing to Tianjin, comes after months of testing the locomotives at normal speeds.
It is expected that the trains will expand national railway passenger capacity by 18 per cent, or 340,000 seats a day, alleviating ticket shortages, especially during holidays.
However, currently only 6,000km of track can accommodate the high-speed trains, with most restricted to of 160km an hour on 14,000km of sub-standard track. Until upgrades are made, trains will be forced to chug along at 120km per hour over another 22,000km.
Nevertheless by 2020, China hopes 13,000km of track, or about one-fifth of the nation's current 77,000km, will be able to handle bullet trains.
A drawback for the moment is that fares on the new services are nearly 50 per cent more than current express trains.
"Tickets are quite expensive," said one passenger, who paid 42 yuan (US$5.43) on the bullet service between Beijing and Tianjin.
The usual price on the fastest express train on the same line is 30 yuan. AFP
Business Besides Oil
