China High Speed Rail Rail network to be finished by 2015

By 2015, China will have a high-speed railway network that will encompass almost all its cities with a population of more than 500,000, the State Council said on Tuesday.

The State Council issued a plan for building a comprehensive transportation network.

The plan says China should complete the construction of a high-speed railway network with a total operating length of more than 40,000 km by the end of 2015.

The combined length of China’s high-speed railway has reached 13,000 kilometers, the most out of any other country in the world.

the 4 by 4 network. 4 North South Lines and 4 East West Lines

The pace of China’s high-speed rail expansion slowed sharply in 2011 after the removal of Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun in February pending investigation for corruption and a fatal high-speed railway accident near Wenzhou in July. Concerns about HSR safety, high ticket prices, low ridership, financial sustainability of high speed rail projects and environmental impact have drawn greater scrutiny from the Chinese press. Top operational speed of HSR trains on lines previously operating at 350 km/h were lowered to 300 km/h and those running at 250 km/h were lowered to 200 km/h. By late summer 2011, state banks began to cut back lending to railway construction projects. By October 2011, work had halted on 10,000 km of track under construction due to shortage of funding. In late October and early November 2011, the Ministry of Railways raised 250 billion RMB in debt and loans, and construction resumed on a number of lines. In July 2012 the Railway Ministry announced that the speed restrictions introduced following the Wenzhou crash would be partially relaxed. It was expected that the 300 kph limit would be increased to 320km/h with a corresponding increase on 200 km/h lines

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