The Federal Government on Tuesday signed a contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Nigeria Limited for the construction of Lagos to Ibadan standard rail track.

During the agreement signing ceremony in Abuja, the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, said the agreement demonstrated consistency, continuity and commitment of government’s policy to the modernisation of the railway system.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that on July 18, the Federal Executive Council approved Addendum No.2: Lagos to Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Double Track on double formation covering a distance of 156.65km totaling 313.30km double track.

Umar said the contract was approved in favour of CCECC in the sum of 1.49 billion dollars inclusive all tax with a completion period of 36 months.

He said the project, like the Abuja (Idu) to Kaduna project awarded in January 2009, was to be partly financed by the Chinese Government through a China EXIM Bank concessionary loan facility.

``Under the arrangement, the loan facility to the tune of one billion dollars is going to be provided by the China EXIM Bank,’’ he said.

He said negotiations had been concluded with China EXIM Bank for an initial 500 million dollars during the negotiation in China.

The minister said the balance of 500 million dollars was expected in due course while the Federal Government was expected to pay the balance of the project fund, which is 530.78 million dollars.

The Managing Director of CCECC, Mr. Cao Gang, gave an assurance that the company would keep pace with the terms and conditions of the contract. 

The Longyan-Xiamen Railway, the third high-speed railway in Fujian province, began operations on June 29, 2012. Fujian’s railway system is growing at a dramatic rate, with each year welcoming a new rail line. The province now has 2,000 miles of railway track, with 2,000 miles under construction and 2,000 more planned.

The tourism departments of Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan are trying to synthesize their tourism resources into a single complex, incorporating the ocean in Xiamen, forests in Zhangzhou and earth buildings in Longyan. The opening of the Longyan-Xiamen Railway has shortened travel time. It now takes less than 1.5 hours to travel from Xiamen to Longyan, which is especially convenient for tourists.

High-speed railways invigorate tourism of cities along rail lines. After the opening of the Wenzhou-Fuzhou Railway on Sept 28, 2009, Taimu Mountain, Baishuiyang and Sanfang Qixiang (Three Lanes and Seven Alleys) saw an increase in tourism. The Fuzhou-Xiamen Railway, which began running in April 2010, also turned Meizhou Island, Qingyuan Mountain and Gulang Island into hot spots.

According to the plan, Fujian will establish a railway system composed of three longitudinal, six lateral and nine ring rail lines. By 2015, the overall mileage of Fujian railways will reach 5,000 miles and will cover more than 90 percent of counties and towns.

The highly anticipated Xiangtang-Putian Railway will start rolling on Sept 30, 2013 and will shorten travel time from Nanchang to Fuzhou from 11 hours to 3.5 hours.  

A major Chinese train maker announced Monday it has developed an electric locomotive with "the world's highest power."

The power, which reaches 10,000 kilowatts, is the world's highest for an electrical locomotive. This compares to the maximum 6,400-kilowatts power for traditional locomotives, according to a spokesman of Datong Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., maker of the railway vehicle.

The company is a subsidiary of China North Locomotive and Rolling Corp. Ltd. (CNR), the country's second-largest train maker.

Designed with a maximum speed that can reach 120 km per hour, the locomotive can carry an estimated 100 railway carriages each weighing 80 tonnes, more than double that of a traditional locomotive, the spokesman said.

Datong Locomotive has developed six types of large-power electric locomotives and become the first Chinese business to export such products to Europe.

Guangshen Railway Company Limited ("Guangshen Railway" or the "Company") (HKEx Share Code: 525; SSE Share Code: 601333; American Depositary Shares ("ADS") Ticker Symbol: GSH) today announced its unaudited operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2012 (the "Period") of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group").

During the Period, operating revenue of the Company reached RMB7,011 million, an increase of 1.11% year-on-year. Profit from operations was RMB990 million, down 23.71% compared to RMB1,298 million in the same period last year. Profit attributable to equity holders amounted to RMB678 million, 25.87% lower compared to RMB915 million in the same period last year. Basic earnings per share came to RMB0.10. The board of directors of the Company does not recommend the payment of any interim dividend for 2012.

Guangshen Railway said, "In the first half of 2012, the PRC economy has slowed down under the combined influence of complicated and variable domestic and overseas market conditions. Facing the lower demand for railway transportation industry and the unfavorable operating environment caused by the dilution of client base by Express Rail Links, the management has rallied staff in its ongoing drive to boost marketing activities, re-align the transportation organization, enhance the transportation resources and explore growth opportunities in the railway operating services. These measures have helped the Company successfully realized the safety and stability of transportation production and a moderate increase in the transportation revenue. However, due to higher labor costs, train repair expenses and other operating costs, profitability has been impacted."

During the Period, the Company recorded passenger delivery volume of 42.4157 million persons, marking a year-on-year decrease of 6.65%. Revenue from passenger transportation decreased 4.24% year-on-year to RMB3,742 million. Of this amount, the passenger delivery volumes of Guangzhou-Shenzhen trains, long-distance trains and Through Trains amounted to 18.0451 million, 22.5599 million and 1.8106 million persons, respectively, marking year-on-year decreases of 7.08%, 7.02% and an increase of 3.12%, respectively. The three operations realised revenues of RMB1,195 million, RMB2,321 million and RMB225 million, respectively, marking year-on-year decreases of 7.46%, 3.17% and an increase of 3.10%, respectively.

The lower passenger delivery volume and revenue of Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity trains were mainly due to slowing growth of the PRC economy, especially in the Pearl River Delta, leading to lower demand in the passenger transportation market. Meanwhile, factory inspection was required for certain "CRHs" that had reached grade four mileage, capping the number of trains in service. The train schedule of Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity trains was adjusted from March 8 this year to ensure operating safety of the trains, leading to fewer train pairs in operation and longer travel time and running train intervals, which in turn lowered the operating capacity of the trains.

In respect of long-distance trains, the passenger delivery volume and revenue were also impacted by slowing economic growth in the PRC, leading to lower demand in the passenger transportation market. This was compounded by competition arising from the higher frequency of the Wuhan-Guangzhou Express Rail Link which diluted the customer base. More stringent controls on passenger train overloading, implemented since the Spring Festival to comply with safety regulations and guarantee service quality, also capped business volume to a certain extent.

Construction workers on Tuesday laid the last piece of a railway that will link southwest China's Yunnan province with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

The Yuxi-Mengzi Railway has a total length of 141 km with a designed maximum speed of 120 km per hour. It passes through 35 tunnels and crosses 61 bridges, which together account for 54.95 percent of the line's total length.

The railway is part of the eastern line of the planned Pan-Asia Railway network, an international railway project that will also consist of central and western lines.

Funded by the Ministry of Railways and the Yunnan government, the railway has a total investment of 4.5 billion yuan (709.78 million U.S. dollars).

The railway is expected to become operational later this year and will boost land transportation between China and ASEAN countries.

The eastern route is designed to start in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, and pass through the cities of Yuxi, Mengzi and Hekou in Yunnan to connect with Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Singapore.

Construction in Yunnan of the eastern line's last section, which will link Mengzi with the border city of Hekou, is going to plan, likely enabling the Sino-Vietnam railway to become operational first in the Pan-Asia Railway network, said a local railway official.

The new line will be a much more modern replacement to the 100-year-old line that links Kunming with Haiphone of Vietnam, the first transnational railway in southwest China, said Han Zhongping, deputy director of the Kunming railway bureau.

The 854-km Kunming-Haiphone line has a designed maximum speed of only 30 km per hour. It is the world's longest "narrow" line -- one meter wide, compared to the standard 1.435 meters wide.

Meanwhile, construction of several sections of the other two lines and also of lines linking major domestic cities like Shanghai is also under way.

Lu Dongfu, vice railway minister, said the huge investment on railway construction in Yunnan has major significance at a time when the country's railway investment is recovering.

The projects in Yunnan will become part of the national strategy to open up the southwest and spur economic growth in ethnic minority regions, according to Lu.

The robust construction is pushing the mountainous border province to the forefront of opening-up, said Liang Gongqing, head of the provincial railway construction inspection team. Railway investment over the past eight years totalled 53.7 billion yuan (8.5 billion U.S. dollars), he added.

The expanding network will bring Yunnan closer to other parts of China and also provide a more efficient and convenient passage for exchange and trade with southeast Asia, Han said.  

With its sparkling domed skylight, polished granite floor tiles, grand piano, and string of retail outlets such as Timberland and Nautica, the Beijing South Railway Station could compete with the world's finest for modernity and cleanliness.

It was here in December that we boarded China's new high-speed bullet train that whisked us off to Shanghai, more than 800 miles to the south, in just five hours. For efficiency and comfort at a relatively low price ($185 round-trip for second-class seats that were nicer than those on Amtrak's Acela), you can't beat it. Cruising at about 185 m.p.h., the bullet train provides a smooth, quiet ride through China's eastern industrial corridor as it snakes south through four provinces before reaching its terminus at Shanghai's Hongqiao Rail Station. This is like leaving Philadelphia's 30th Street Station at 10 a.m. and arriving in Atlanta by 3 p.m. 

Beijing-based CNR put the contract value at 91 million yuan ($14 million), which a company executive said includes components used in the roofing, floors and walls of aluminum-alloy train cars. Siemens confirmed it will import CNR-made body shell components for a single project that will be assembled in Germany.

"It's the first time China CNR will export key components for high-speed trains to Europe," said the CNR executive, who asked not to be named.

Siemens confirmed the deal in a brief statement in response to questions, saying it has sourced "raw components" from China for years.

"Due to the current shortage of production capacity in our German site, we decided to source combined body shell components by CNR for a single project," said the statement. "The final assembly work will be done in Germany. The current contract is limited to this single order. No further agreements have been signed with CNR so far."

A Siemens spokeswoman said she didn't have information about how or where the railway equipment will be deployed.

Even a small foothold in western markets for high-speed rail equipment represents a step forward for China's train makers, which have outfitted the world's largest such system at home but so far had export ambitions thwarted by questions about quality of workmanship.

Events over the past year have battered the Chinese railway industry's image, including corruption allegations against top railway officials, electronic malfunctions on its most-vaunted lines and a collision of two high-speed trains that killed 40 people near the city of Wenzhou.

Siemens has established links with China's railway system. It built China's first high-speed railway line, between Beijing and Tianjin, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and is credited with a short system near Shanghai's airport that runs on magnetic levitation.

Yet in recent years, Chinese regulations have made it difficult for foreign companies to take full advantage of the country's adoption of high-speed railway systems. Local Chinese companies, often relying in part on imported technology, are the primary suppliers of railway equipment.

China's big market for railway equipment, analysts say, represents a growing competitive advantage for its railway equipment industry, which is largely government owned and well capitalized.

Companies like CNR and rival China CSR Ltd. began building a high-speed rail system over the past decade using imported technology but increasingly claim proprietary systems that are deployed on the world's longest such system.

Last month, China's State Council said it will triple the length of its high-speed rail network to 40,000 kilometers by 2015 from 13,000 kilometers now. The plan, as described by Xinhua News Agency, calls for the rapid-rail system to connect virtually every city with more than a half-million residents.

China's second-largest train manufacturer said Tuesday its net profits slowed sharply in the first half of the year due to faltering demand.

China CNR Corp Ltd posted net profits of 1.66 billion yuan ($261.83 million) for the first half, up 3.32 percent year-on-year, according to the company's statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

CNR's net profits surged 55.16 percent year-on-year during the same period in 2011.

In the first six months, operating revenues climbed 4.16 percent year-on-year to 42.85 billion yuan, with revenues from locomotive sales dipping 13 percent and those from bullet train sales slumping 16 percent.

However, revenues from the international market surged 107.92 percent year-on-year to 4.48 billion yuan due to increasing exports of cargo, light rail and subway cars, the CNR said.

The company is facing challenges in the form of slow global growth, downside pressure in the domestic economy and rising trade protectionism, it said.

A Chinese company built a cold-resistant subway train on Tuesday, expecting to put the train into operation in northeast China's city of Harbin by the end of the year, the company said.

The train, which features cold-resistant materials and inert gases in its design, can operate in temperatures as low as minus 38 degrees Celsius, according to a subsidiary of China CNR Corporation Limited, one of the country's two major train manufacturing companies.

The train is also the lightest aluminum subway train ever produced in China, the company said.

The train will be used in Harbin, provincial capital of Heilongjiang province, by the end of 2012, the company said.

China's first extreme cold-resistant metro car was completed on Tuesday in Northeast city of Changchuan, Jilin Province and is expected to put into use in Harbin's subway, capital of China's most northern province, Heilongjiang, Xinhua News Agency reports.

The snow-proofing and weather-resistant metro car is able to travel at 38 degrees below zero. CNR Changchun Railway Vehicle Co., LTD. manufactured the metro car with safety and comfort in mind.

To deal with the extremely cold conditions in north China, experts used inert gases, polymers and advanced insulation to make the car.

This car is the lightest aluminum alloy metro car in China and is able to reduce electricity consumption, according to the report.