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Railway expansion plan unveiled

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-01 07:12

Train transportation will be tremendously improved by 2012, since construction of an expanded railway system accelerated in the second half of 2008, the railway minister said yesterday.

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It was the first time the ministry announced a deadline for the expansion plan.

"Surely, 2012 is going to be a year of historical change," Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun told an annual working conference in Beijing.

"The advanced railway network taking shape will remove the bottlenecks in railway transport."

In 2008, 80 railway construction projects were launched, including 10 started in the last week of the year. Currently, 2 trillion yuan ($293 billion) worth of rail construction projects that will span 30,000 km when completed are under way, Liu said.

More projects to lay an additional 20,000 km of tracks will start this year and in 2010, he added.

China is expected to have 110,000 km of tracks, including 13,000 km for passenger trains traveling at more than 250 km per hour, within four years. It would also have 800 modern railway stations, Liu said.

The central government has supported railway construction as part of its comprehensive push to boost domestic demand as the economy slows.

National Development and Reform Commission vice-minister Zhao Mao told the conference the current construction is taking place at unprecedented speed.

"More projects that can yield quick returns with relatively low investment, like railways linking Shanxi province with seaports, should be implemented next year," he said.

Liu also said his administration will adjust plans to open more passenger train routes among major cities this year.

The economic slowdown has reduced demand for, and prices of, oil, grain, cotton and chemical fertilizers in recent months.

Nearly 10 million tons of unwanted coal is now heaped in railway companies' freight yards. When the economy was more robust, these materials accounted for 95 percent of China's annual rail cargo transport volume, he said.

"We need to increase passenger transport volumes to compensate for the loss," he said.

Busy routes from Beijing to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Harbin, as well as those between Shanghai and Kunming, and between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, will all get more trains.

China's railway network currently stretches 79,000 km.