High-speed Train: China To Construct 15,000 km Of Network By 2030

The country currently boasts the world’s fastest high-speed train at 350 km per hour.

Since China launched high-speed or bullet trains in 2008, the country has built 22,000 km of rail, becoming the world’s largest high-speed network. The authorities plan to construct 15,000 km of bullet train rail by 2030 to take the total to 37,000 km.

Zhao Zhangshan, Deputy Director, International Department, China Academy of Railway Sciences, CARS, briefed 27 African journalists on November 20, 2017 in the Chinese capital, Beijing, just before they took the Fuxing or “Chinese Rejuvenation” bullet train to Shanghai.

Zhao said 7 billion passengers were transported by high-speed train in the country in the last seven years without any accident, making the transport system the safest in the world. Meanwhile, China boasts the fastest high-speed train service in the world today at 350 km per hour.

The new speed was introduced on September 21, 2017. From 2008 to 2016, the fastest Chinese-built high-speed trains covered 300 km in an hour. The 1,318-km-long Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line that opened to traffic in 2012 is now covered by Fuxing trains in 4 hours, 28 minutes - with brief stopovers at a few stations.

Connecting the Chinese capital in the north with the country's major financial and trade hub in the south, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the busiest in the country, transporting over 100 million passengers a year.

Chinese Rejuvenation trains - entirely designed and manufactured in China - are smooth, have free Wi-Fi connection and much space between front and back seats. The coaches are almost noiseless, conven...