Author Topic: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing  (Read 3488 times)

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Paul Todd

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The Chinese government is offering to subsidize the creation of a trans-Eurasian rail system that would have direct, high-speed links between Beijing and London. It would be the largest infrastructure project ever attempted. Trains would also run to India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.

Wang said Beijing was already in negotiations with 17 countries over the rail lines, which would also allow China to transport 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."
On March 11, a spokesman in China's Ministry of Railways confirmed that the network would consist of northern, southern, and western routes. This would make a two-day trip from Beijing to London possible by 2025. The western route of the network will connect Xinjiang with Germany, through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. The entire project is a part of China's Pan-Asian railway plan attempting to link 28 states with 81,000 kilometers of railroads.

China's high-speed railways are already the world's longest and fastest, with speeds of up to 350 km per hour. As Beijing Jiaotong University's Professor Wang Mengshu stated, China is "aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as airplanes." Cheap construction costs and technological expertise might enable China to outperform Japan, Germany, and France. Reportedly, other countries, particularly India, have reached out to China to construct railway networks, with Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Poland already considering China for their railway plans. Central Asia and China, too, have an interest in such cooperation, but not without reservations

shaun

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2010, 10:07:19 am »
Peggy really approves of this story but would like it better if high speed train would go to America first.

I mean she got all excited about it.

Offline seagull

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2010, 10:57:49 am »
This is like a modern day Silk Road. I'm sure that with China growing as a world economic power they will make this happen some day.

Offline Josh Markley

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2010, 12:53:03 pm »
Damn my ancestors for coming to the states, haha
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Offline Sylvain D

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2010, 05:19:29 pm »
Do they include a stop in France? :)
However, that would be a very good news, but I think that would cost more than 10 million $ to do that... :s
Well... let's wait and see if that could be very made :)
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ttwjr32

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2010, 07:01:08 pm »
this would be a most welcome event when completed

Offline Okie_Rob

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2010, 01:51:19 am »
The transportation system in China is awesome, maybe not much fun sometimes .... and crowded... but  ... Research I did a short time ago: The city of Shenzhen China has 24,000 buses in service ... with almost 500 routes around the city  ... in 2008, they sold 2 billion tickets ... or transported 2 billion paying passengers with their bus transportation system.  That is more than the total population of China...and that was only one major city in China (and the majority of ticket cost was 2 Yuan..... but sometimes farther travel to distant suburbs would cost 4-5 Yuan...but most inner city travel was 2 Yuan/RMBB)...  I think China can handle any transportation ... network across Europe.  I do not have any stats on the train transportation system ... but the train system in China ... is very busy .... and the train terminals are very large ... and busy ... with many travelers ... I have traveled 4 times from Shenzhen to Yueyang and one time to Guangzhou ... and everytime I traveled... the trains were full to capacity... the ticket counters were very busy..... the USA virtually has no train service compared to China.  The transportation system in Chins is so cost effective ... if I lived in China ... I really see no need of owning an automobile .... in China.... would be a waste of $$$$
« Last Edit: June 27, 2010, 02:01:25 am by Okie_Rob »
"USA, Wise Up!"  "美国,明智了! " "China has" " 中国有"

rockycoon

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2010, 02:33:24 am »
If they do it and if it fly's, it will be another "Wonder of the world".  They already have the 9th which is the Dam with the elevator
in it, now they will get the 10th with this train system.  :D :D

Wonder how they would run a rail system from US to Europe ?  How and where would you run a route ?
« Last Edit: June 27, 2010, 02:35:41 am by rockycoon »

Paul Todd

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2010, 11:45:09 pm »
China is in the middle of a 480 billion pound 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.

Mr Wang said the route of the three lines had yet to be decided, but that construction for the South East Asian line had already begun in the southern province of Yunnan and that Burma was about to begin building its link. China has offered to bankroll the Burmese line in exchange for the country's rich reserves of lithium, a metal widely used in batteries.

Currently, the only rail line that links China to South East Asia is an antiquated track built by the French in Vietnam a century ago. The Asian Development Bank has recently agreed a second 27 million pound loan as part of the 93 pound reconstruction of Cambodia's network, which should finish by 2013. The cost of the lines from Cambodia to Singapore and then from Vietnam to China could be roughly 400 million pound.

"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," Mr Wang said. "The Northern network will be the third one to start, although China and Russia have already agreed on a high-speed line across Siberia, where one million Chinese already live."

One stumbling block is China's desire for the high-speed tracks to run on the same gauge as China's domestic network. Vietnam has agreed to change its standard gauge, but other countries are still in negotiations.

"From our point of view, the biggest issue is money," said Mr Wang. "We will use government money and bank loans, but the railways may also raise financing from the private sector and also from the host countries. We would actually prefer the other countries to pay in natural resources rather than make their own capital investment."

As for passengers, Mr Wang predicted that in a decade's time, visa restrictions on travel through Asia "will be further lifted".

So China would like to be paid in natural resources, Talk about playing the long game.
The Burmese have just signed over the rights to there country's rich reserves of lithium in exchange for the Chinese building that section of the rail link.
If you like train journeys the this is a very interesting site  www.seat61.com
You can already get from London to Beijing by train via Moscow but it takes considerably longer than 2 days

ttwjr32

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Re: China proposes trans-Eurasian rail system from London to Beijing
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2010, 09:07:32 am »
as they build these rails i surely do hope they lift some of the travel restrictions for the chinese
as my wife and i could take full advantage of the traveling by this method.

by 2013 guangzhou will have 13 subway linking the whole city which is a welcome site for
us living here right now they have 5 finished and 6,7,8 are nearing completion soon