11Сhinese railways

Railway construction began in China late in the 19th century, and the first line, between

Shanghai and Peking (Beijing), was opened in 1903. By World War II more than 15,500 miles

(25,000 kilometers) of track had been built, primarily in the eastern and northeastern parts of the

country. Much of the network was destroyed during the war, but rail construction began anew after 1949 and has continued ever since. By 1993 China had an estimated 43,131 miles (69,412

kilometers) of railroads. (By comparison, the United States had about three times as much trackage in that year.) By 1983 every province-level administrative unit except Tibet was served by rail, and plans were being made to extend a line south from the Lanzhou-UrUmqi line to Lhasa, in Tibet.

Railways have become the most important form of transportation in China. For example, more

than 50 percent of the country’s traffic is moved by the railroad system. China’s rail network

consists of a series of north-south trunk lines, crossed by a few major east-west lines. Most of the

large cities are served by these trunk lines. But many of the main lines cannot meet the demand for service. The sixth five-year plan (1981 to 1985) called for continued large investment in railways.

The investment was used to improve the carrying capacity of existing lines through double tracking or electrification, and to construct short lines where the government decided there was a crucial need for service.

Nowadays much attention is paid to the development of high speed railway transportation.

Unexpected growth of air and road transport has hit the railways hard. The Chinese Minister of

Railways has noted that during the ‘good old days’ such things as customer service and fast, reliable trains didn’t matter too much. “The timetable was fixed and we had nothing to worry about but watching passengers struggling for tickets,” he said. “But today we have to go out and look for food like horses.”

Worldwide, high speed trains moving at 250 km/h or more operate over 3,700 km of speciallybuilt track, while passenger trains in Chine still mainly run at 80-100 km/h. The situation needs to change and change quickly if railways in the world’s most populous1 country are to continue to play their important social and economic role. In recognition of this, China is planning several thousand kilometers of new lines in order to transport 1.5 billion passengers and 2.1 billion tones of freight a year. Specific plans have been drawn up to upgrade the busiest main lines for semi-express passenger trains running at 160 km/h, or express trains moving at 250 km/h, while at the same time experiments are going ahead for 300 to 350 km/h operation.

So, despite a drift away from passenger train travel by some people, there is no possibility of

railways in China becoming obsolete. The country is vast and still developing which means that the railways are and will remain the chief means of transport.

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