BEIJING/ZHENGZHOU, China - China will open the world's longest high-speed rail line next week when a link between Beijing and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is inaugurated, officials said on Saturday, underscoring its commitment to a trouble-plagued transport scheme.
The 2,298-km (1,428-mile) line, parts of which are already
in operation, will begin full service on Wednesday, halving
travel time to less than 10 hours on trains which will run at
300 kph (186 mph).
The new route offers a chance for China’s railways ministry,
which has been dogged by scandals and missteps, to redeem
itself.
A July 2011 crash of a high-speed train killed 40 people and
raised concerns about the safety of the fast-growing network and
threatened plans to export high-speed technology.
“We have developed a full range of effective measures to
manage safety,” Zhou Li, head of the ministry’s science and
technology department, told reporters on a trial run from
Beijing to the central city of Zhengzhou.
“We can control safety management,” he added.
Last year’s accident near the booming eastern coastal city
of Wenzhou occurred when a high-speed train rammed into another
stranded on the track after being hit by lightning.
Rail investment slowed sharply in the wake of that accident
and state media reported earlier this year that the government
had cut planned railway investment by 500 billion yuan ($80.27
billion) to 2.3 trillion yuan under a five-year plan to 2015.
But that may reflect cuts that have already taken place as
the Ministry of Railways has raised its planned investment
budget three times this year as part of government efforts to
bolster a slowing economy.
The ministry plans to spend a total of 630 billion yuan in
2012 and has been given clearance to sell more bonds to finance
the investments – one of the few outright spending commitments
made by the central government in a slew of project approvals
worth $157 billion which have not specified how they will be
funded.
The approvals include 25 rail investments, state media say.
Despite its expanding network, the Ministry of Railways
struggles to make money. It suffered an after-tax loss of 8.8
billion yuan in the first half of 2012 in the face of rising
operating costs and mounting debts.
However, the government says it remained committed to
building high-speed railways between its major cities, with
China eventually planning to run them into Russia and down to
Southeast Asia.
“High-speed railways are needed for national development,
for the people and for regional communication. Many countries
have boosted their economies by developing high-speed rail,”
Zhou said.
China said in May it would open up the railway industry to
private investment on an unprecedented scale, but private
investors have been sceptical.
The need for funding is acute. China still needs billions
more in rail investment to remove bottlenecks in cargo
transport, ease overcrowding in passenger transport and develop
commuter lines in its sprawling megacities.
($1 = 6.2286 yuan)
(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Ben Blanchard; Additional
reporting by Nick Edwards; Editing by Nick Macfie)
