China to expand bullet train network by 2020
BEIJING: China will expand its bullet train network to 30,000 kms covering 80 per cent of its big cities as part of the country’s efforts to establish a comprehensive transport system by 2020, according to a new official white paper issued on Thursday.
The white paper, titled Development of China’s Transport, said China will increase the length of high-speed railways in service to 30,000 kms from the present 20,000 kms by 2020 linking more than 80 per cent of its big cities.
China had launched world’s longest high speed train service. The Shanghai-kunming line –2,252 km in length – traverses five provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan and cuts travel time from Shanghai to Kunming from 35 to 11 hours.
Also on Wednesday, another high-speed rail line linking Kunming and Nanning, capital of southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was launched.
China also plans to renovate 30,000 kms of expressways and provide tarmac and cement roads and shuttle bus services for administrative villages with the necessary conditions, while all villages will have access to mail service, the paper said.
China will build commuting circles of 1 to 2 hours between the central cities and between central and peripheral cities, and onehour commuting circles between central cities and key peripheral towns.
With priority focused on public transit, China will speed up the development of its urban rail and bus rapid transit, and other means of high-capacity public transport, the white paper said.
By 2020, intercity railway networks will be completed in several urban agglomerations including the Beijing-tianjin-hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta areas, it said.
The white paper said more efforts will be made in cities with 3 million or more residents to form urban rail transport networks, and about 3,000 kms of new tracks will be added to the current urban rail transit system.
China will also move to build integrated transport hubs, promote the green and intelligent development of transport services and improve safety in the transport industry, it said.
Comprehensive transport network spreads from east to west and south to north, construct passageways that extend beyond its borders, and develop sea routes for the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road in the five-year period, it added.