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According to a report at Bloomberg , China plans a major investment in high-speed rail over the next five years: $503 Billion:
China plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan ($503 billion) to expand its railway system by 2020 as it turns to investments in infrastructure to bolster growth and improve connectivity across the country.
The high-speed rail network will span more than 30,000 kilometers (18,650 miles) under the proposal, according to details released at a State Council Information Office briefing in Beijing Thursday. The distance, about 6.5 times the length of a road trip between New York and Los Angeles, will cover 80 percent of major cities in China.
The plan will see high-speed rail lines across the country expand by more than half over a five-year period, a boon to Chinese suppliers of rolling stock such as CRRC Corp. and rail construction companies including China Railway Construction Corp. and China Railway Group Ltd. Earlier this year, China turned to a private company for first time to operate an inter-city rail service on the mainland, part of President Xi Jinping's push to modernize the nation's transport network amid slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.
China will also add 3,000 kilometers to its urban rail transit system under the plan released Thursday.
At the end of 2015, China had 121,000 kilometers of railway lines, including 19,000 kilometers of high-speed tracks, according to a transportation white paper issued Thursday. The U.S. had 228,218 kilometers of rail lines as of 2014, according to latest available data from the World Bank.
The Chinese government will invite private investment to participate in funding intercity and regional rail lines, Yang Yudong, administrator of the National Railway Administration, said at the briefing.
Compare that to what it would cost, and how long it would take, to create the same high-speed rail links between 80% of major cities in the USA. I suspect it would be considered a miracle if half the cases would make it out of the courts in five years. Think of the advancements in manufacturing that can arise when "here" and "there" are "nearby" instead of "far away".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @03:27PM
It's looking like the Chinese gov't owns their rails (?)
In USA, the rails are mostly privately owned, mostly by freight railroads and the passenger trains are mostly gov't owned (Amtrak). The rail owners have no incentive to improve the tracks for higher speeds, all they care about is getting the freight through at lowest cost.
Just imagine what the difference would be in USA if the rails were owned and maintained by the gov't, same as the highways. Then the train companies could compete with common infrastructure. We got this right (for some values of "right") with gov't owned highways, maintained by taxes and fees. The few examples of privately owned roads haven't been (to my knowledge) very successful.
I'd say that our ancestors missed it when they gave the railroads the right of way forever in exchange for building out the tracks. A 50 or 100 year lease would have been just as effective in terms of attracting private investment back then.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday January 02 2017, @09:36PM
in The UK's rail infrastructure has been in government hands for 70 years. For the first 50, train services were also nationalised. The network was expected to run at a profit even as car ownership took off, and when it became clear (for several reasons) that wasn't happening it was savagely cut back to try to break even. In later years, it was run on a shoestring to reduce subsidy, but expenditure still had to be approved on an annual basis by the government of the day.
For the last two decades passenger and freight services have been privatised and operated as franchises. (Track maintainance was privatised, but was a horrid failure due to excessive cost-cutting, and is back in public hands.) Passenger numbers have grown unexpectedly well, but government subsidy has skyrocketed, and ticket prices have increased above inflation rates for at least a decade. In this system, train operators have little incentive to contribute to infrastructure upgrades, as they will see little return on their investment during their short (7 to 15 year) franchise. Much like the situation you bemoan in the US.
On the high speed rail front, we're slowly working towards building our first stretch of HSR since a short line linking London to the Channel Tunnel. This new line is really needed as a relief line for the overcrowded West Coast Main Line between London and Birmingham, but as a new line is needed, it may aal:2009. Construction starts: 2017. First phase (140 miles to Birmingham) complete: 2026!
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday January 02 2017, @09:41PM
Backspace ate some of the last paragraph:
As a new line is needed, it may as well be built as a high speed line, and extended to serve other areas of the UK. Compared to China, progress is glacial. First proposal 2009, construction starts 2017, first 140 miles to Birmingham completed by 2026!