RAIL NETWORK #1
Starting in Kunming, Yunnan province, this South-east Asia line will run south through Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia to Singapore. The exact route is unclear.
RAIL NETWORK #2
This one will start in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, and cross Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It could possibly extend to Germany.
RAIL NETWORK #3
This line will connect north-eastern Heilongjiang province with eastern and southern European countries via Russia.
CHINA is planning to extend the country's rail network beyond its borders, less than two years after its first high-speed railway went into operation.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Railways confirmed the massive project, which will involve 17 nations, the Global Times newspaper said on Thursday.
Initial negotiations with some countries have already begun, the spokesman told the newspaper but did not provide details.
Experts have said that such an international rail network will not only help boost trade but also promote China's high-speed railway technology.
Professor Wang Mengshu of Beijing's Jiaotong University, who is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, first revealed China's plans to build a high-speed rail system that will connect different parts of the country to other Asian countries and Europe by 2025.
There will be three lines: one running through South-east Asian countries, a second one that crosses Central Asia, and a third that will link northern China to countries in eastern and southern Europe via Russia.
China’s super rail network: London to Beijing in two days
China is in negotiations to build a high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains that capable of running at over 200mph within the next ten years. A trip from London to Beijing could take just two days.
The network would eventually carry passengers from London to Beijing and then to Singapore.
It would also run to India and Pakistan, Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China's domestic high-speed rail project, was quoted as saying.
A second project would see trains heading north through Russia to Germany and into the European railway system, and a third line will extend south to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.
Passengers could board a train in London and step off in Beijing, 5,070 miles away as the crow flies, in just two days. They could go on to Singapore, 6,750 miles away, within three days!.
"We are aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as aeroplanes," said Wang. "The best case scenario is that the three networks will be completed in a decade," he added.
Wang said that China was already in negotiations with 17 countries over the rail lines, which will draw together and open up the whole of Central, East and South East Asia. Wang said the network would also allow China to transport valuable cargoes of raw materials more efficiently.
"It was not China that pushed the idea to start with," said Wang. "It was the other countries that came to us, especially India. These countries cannot fully implement the construction of a high-speed rail network and they hoped to draw on our experience and technology," he said.
China is in the middle of a £480 billion domestic railway expansion project that aims to build nearly 19,000 miles of new railways in the next five years, connecting up all of its major cities with high-speed lines.
The world's fastest train, the Harmony Express which has a top speed of nearly 250mph, was unveiled at the end of last year, between the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou. Wholly Chinese-built, but using technology from Siemens and Kawasaki, the Harmony Express can cover 660 miles, the equivalent of a journey from London to Edinburgh and back, in just three hours.
The route of the three lines had yet to be decided. "We have also already carried out the prospecting and survey work for the European network, and Central and Eastern European countries are keen for us to start," Wang said.
Source from Asiantribune.com(15 March 2010)
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