Slow trains still serving remote communities
Xinjiang: ‘Affordable, essential tool’ boosts incomes in China’s hinterland
People nowadays are usually impressed with China’s high speed trains and rapid development. Older, slower trains, however, are still a lifeline for many rural residents.
China has built more high-speed train tracks than any other country in recent decades, amounting to over 29,000 kilometers as of the end of last year. That’s more than twothirds of the world's total.
Also, the country has been bidding goodbye to most of its old-fashioned trains known for their slow pace and drab interiors, without air conditioning or sleeper beds.
In China, trains that are slower than bullet trains have cars with green exteriors that are powered by electricity or diesel engines. There is a tier of green trains for intercity travel, slower and less expensive than highspeed trains but still relatively common. Beyond that, there is a tier of trains that run at a slower speed due to frequent stops and offer lower fares.
Green trains were a major mode of transportation from the 1950s to the 1990s in China. Coal-powered engines, known for belching black smoke, have been phased out and replaced by electric or diesel.
According to China Railway Corp, 81 of the slow trains that make frequent stops are still in operation in 21 provinces, including 35 ethnic minority areas. Most of them are in southwestern, northwestern and northeastern regions.
An average of 62,000 daily trips are made by these slower trains to provide rural residents with easier and cheaper travel alternatives.
Premier Li Keqiang, during a visit to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Feb 1, called for coordinated development of high-speed trains and inexpensive but slower trains to serve passengers with different needs.
He said although China now has high-speed trains, it can’t afford to lose the slower green trains, and unbalanced and inadequate development in the country means that both efficiency and fairness should be taken into account.
The low-speed trains are often used by locals to transport and sell farm products, buy daily necessities, see doctors and visit relatives. Sometimes they serve as the local school transportation because so many children take them to school.
As inhabitants along the way are scattered, sometimes only one pas- senger or no passengers board at any given stop. The trains still stop at each station and wait for a few minutes. The lowest fare is 1 yuan (15 cents).
Yang Xinzheng, an expert at the China Academy of Transportation, said that slow trains, much cheaper and covering more stations, have become an integral part of the shared memory of a generation. “It’s a train of stories about poverty and a hard life, but it's also a train full of hope.”
On the southwestern edge of the vast Taklimakan Desert, a green train in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is offering local residents an alternative choice to connect with nearby cities and towns at a much cheaper fare. It serves as an important vehicle to help boost their incomes.
Train No 7558 takes 10 carriages with hundreds of passengers every day from China’s westernmost Kashgar prefecture to southern Xinjiang’s hinterland — Hotan prefecture — linking a total of nine cities and counties in the relatively undeveloped region.
Known as the cheapest train ride in China, the seven-hour journey along 485 kilometers of the southern branch of the historical Silk Road costs just 28 yuan ($4.15) per person, one-third the cost of a bus fare. Some short journeys cost just 1 yuan.
Travel was once vexing in many places along the route, where sandstorms and dust dominate the weather about 200 days of the year. The railway has shortened the distance between people and their jobs.
“It used to be very difficult for me to go to neighboring counties, and my clothes were a total mess after traveling by donkey or motorcycle,” said Seydiehmet Kichik, 29, of Hotan. “The opening of the line gave me more job opportunities.”
Picking cotton in Aksu prefecture, about 600 km from his hometown, he can earn 12,000 yuan during the three-month harvest season, more than his income for the entire previous year.
The train is an “affordable, essential tool” for many in China — especially in the west, which remains largely out of reach of high-speed rail, he said.
Poor transportation infrastructure has caused Xinjiang to lag behind eastern regions in economic competitiveness. Building more railways has become a necessity to facilitate its growth and improve people’s living standards.
With the launch of the standard line in 2011, underdeveloped regions along the railway have been connected to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, and to the rest of China’s rail network, which boasts 29,000 km of high-speed lines.
Mehmet Yusup, a 46-year-old jade merchant from Hotan, travels a lot to Kashgar and Urumqi and sometimes even to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for business. He finds the train to be “a great help”.
“I used to take the bus to Urumqi and then transferred to other places, which usually took two or three days,” he said.
“It was really time consuming and not safe. It is especially convenient to have a train now, and the cost is not high.”
The new ease of travel — one day to Kashgar and back — enabled Mehmet to open a grocery store in Kashgar last year.
“I could even buy some farm products on the train, since many local residents along the route make the train a sort of mobile bazaar, especially before Spring Festival,” he said. “Every time I take the train I buy some specialties for my family.”
Wang Weishuai, a 36-year-old locomotive engineer, said the trip from Kashgar to Yecheng offers pleasant views, though sandstorms frequently blight the section from Yecheng to Pishan, which makes his job more challenging.
“The train is of great significance to the people here and I will keep working on it as long as it continues to run,” he said.
The train is of great significance to the people here and I will keep working on it as long as it continues to run.” Wang Weishuai, a 36-year-old locomotive engineer