From Overseas Press

Applause for planned Eurasian super express

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-22 14:21

Tyler Brule, columnist for Financial Times, applauds Beijing's announced plan to build a high-speed rail link connecting Beijing with London. "I will be the first to buy a rail-pass," he said.

In his column published on April 22, he admitted that at first he doubted anyone would book the passage, but after spending the better part of the past weekend in Hong Kong trying to figure out how to get 12 colleagues back to London, Brule reckons "the rail wizards in the People's Republic are on to a winner if they can persuade other nations along the proposed line to play ball and they make the journey comfortable enough."

Brule concludes that "for myriad reasons there is an urgent need to invest in alternative global transport links for days/weeks/months when volcanic ash, cyber-terrorism and other calamities can bring commerce and continents to a standstill."

Besides, the Eurasian super express will bolster the development of the tourism sector, he said. "Indeed, there is something quite romantic about a 21st-century whistle stop business trip calling at Vienna, Kiev, Almaty, Urumqi and Beijing rather than making countless, stressful point-to-point journeys over the course of the year."

Brule further suggests other countries with a vested interest in the rail sector (Canada, Germany, France and Japan) to think about filling in other gaps around the globe: "Cape Town to Copenhagen and Buenos Aires to Montreal are also up for grabs".