Calls are rising in China for more high-speed railways to meet rising demand and boost the national economy.
China is expected to add 2,500km (1,553 miles) of high-speed lines this year, which would bring the system’s total length to 44,500km.
Three new lines – Fuzhou-Xiamen, Guangzhou-Shanwei, and Shanghai-Nanjing Riverside – were launched in the lead-up to the eight-day “golden week” holiday that begins on Friday.
“We expect the average annual investment [from China State Railway Group] will increase 18 per cent from 2023-25, compared with last year,” Zheshang Securities said in a report, stressing the role that railway investments play in stabilising economic growth.
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Investments in railway-related fixed assets have increased at a much faster rate than for other infrastructure construction. They were up 23.4 per cent in the first eight months of 2023, year on year, whereas road-related investments, which is financed by debt-ridden provincial and municipal authorities, were up only 1.9 per cent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on September 15.
As the operator of the world’s largest high-speed network, China State Railway Group’s fixed-asset investments reached 432 billion yuan (US$59 billion) for the January-August period, up 7.2 per cent compared with the same time last year.
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Splashing out on railway investment helped China’s economy recover from the 2008 global financial crisis. And from 2014-19, China spent more than 800 billion yuan annually on railways.
The annual investment total peaked in 2015, when 824 billion yuan was spent, and then dipped to just over 800 billion yuan in the following three years.
But in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, railway investment fell to 782 billion yuan – the first time it had fallen below 800 billion yuan since 2013 – and kept dropping to 749 billion in 2021 and 711 billion yuan last year.
China Railway said there was massive interest in train trips for the coming golden week, and 22.9 million tickets were booked on September 15, the day that golden-week tickets went on sale.
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China Railway expects around 190 million train trips to be taken from September 27 to October 8, which would be a daily average of 15.8 million trips. That’s compared with 139 million trips taken in 2019 from September 29 to October 7, or a daily average of 15.4 million. The upcoming travel period is longer because it includes both the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays.
“To cope with this year’s peak transport period, the railway department has added 1,850 extra train services, including 320 direct trains to popular destinations. The daily passenger seating capacity will increase 18.5 per cent from 2019,” China Railway said.
After extending the high-speed railway system to about 44,500km this year, the plan is to reach 50,000 by 2025, according to a five-year transport plan issued last year by the State Council, the country’s cabinet.
