A new high-speed railway, which connects the capital cities of Henan and Hubei provinces in Central China, was put into service on Friday, creating a new north-south corridor in the national high-speed rail grid.

The first pair of bullet trains started to run on the Zhengzhou-Wuhan line at 9 am on Friday.

The new line decreases the travel time between the two cities to two hours, down from four and a half hours.

Construction began on the 536 km line, with a total investment of 57 billion yuan ($9 billion), in 2008, with a top designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

For now, the new line will carry 24 pairs of trains every day, with a speed limit of 300 km/h, railway authorities said.

The line is a major part of the 2,300-km Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, China’s longest high-speed line in planning, which is expected to open by the end of the year.

China slowed progress of high-speed railway construction after a deadly train crash in East China’s Wenzhou in July 2011, but high-speed railways are still growing to meet the huge market demand. Authorities plan to build more than 16,000 km of high-speed lines by 2020.

Zhang Junbang, head of the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, said at the line’s opening ceremony that the new line is connected with many existing high-speed lines, creating a larger fast-track network in the region with great social and economic benefits.

The line, which extends the Wuhan-Guangzhou line to the north, links many major railway hubs, such as Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Xi’an, Guangzhou and Nanjing, on a grid connected by high-speed railways.

"The line will increase passenger flows to stimulate local economic development, which will help build inland Central China as an economic highland and serve the national strategy of going west," Zhang said.

Cozy trip

"Taking the high-speed train is a convenient and comfortable experience," said Robert Speed, a consultant with the World Wide Fund for Nature, who was among the first group of passengers on the line.

He said he prefers the train over flying from Zhengzhou to Wuhan because the trip is faster and cheaper.

"The high-speed train is driven by electricity, so it is also a more eco-friendly travel way for mass transportation," he said.

Kang Qiang, a businessman from Zhengzhou who frequently travels between the city and Wuhan, said the new line will be his first choice in the future.

"On the train I don’t have to turn off my cell phone, and the seat provides a power supply that allows me to use my laptop," he said.

"Also, trains are more punctual in departure and arrival than planes," he added.

The new line will also help relieve pressure on the railway network for the National Day holiday travel peak, which starts on Sunday.

Train Safety

The Zhengzhou Railway Bureau said in a statement that every effort has been made to ensure safe travel on the new line, which has set high standards on its building process, operational system and overhaul.

"Drivers are a crucial part to guarantee our bullet trains race safely on track," the bureau said.

According to the statement, high-speed train drivers were selected from among thousands of drivers of regular trains, who can get a license with safe a driving record of no less than 500,000 km on rails.

Eligible candidates then have to pass exams and get one month of intensive training.

In addition, the bureau said every night, workers will spend at least four hours inspecting the track and related facilities for maintenance. A pair of trains without passengers will take a test run in the early morning to confirm road safety.

Rail network

The line is one more piece of the jigsaw that is China’s grid-shaped high-speed railway network, which underlines Wuhan, a port city on the Yangtze River, as an important traffic hub, experts said.

Hu Runzhou, vice-president of the Wuhan Institute of Traffic Engineering and a railway expert, believes the city’s unique location advantages will be further recognized, as Wuhan is now crisscrossed by several high-speed railways.

So far, travelers to Wuhan have been able to take bullet trains to Guangdong province’s Guangzhou on the south, Anhui province’s Hefei on the east, and Yichang, Hubei province.

And the new railway path will link the city to the north region — even to Beijing by the end of the year — making Wuhan the meeting point of the planned north-south Beijing-Guangzhou line and the east-west Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu line, Hu said.
 

The Ministry of Transport and China Southern Railway (CSR) will sign a Memorandum of Arrangement next Monday towards the development of a railway complex in Batu Gajah, Perak, with an estimated cost of RM400 million.

The deal will encompass matters related to railway technology, engineering, infrastructure and industry sources, development of human resources in railway engineering and collaboration in the field of future railway technologies.

In a statement today, the ministry said that the complex will be developed on a 20-hectare site with its completion due in two years time.

The centre is expected to be catalyst for the development of local support industries, not just in the state but the rest of the country and also offer 800 job opportunities.

The investment will bring positive benefits to the country, considering that the Malaysian market alone is expected to demand for 250 units of railway coaches and locomotives a year for the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, the market for trains in Asean countries and the Middle East is about 2,900 for new trains and 1,350 for restored trains for the next five years, the Transport Ministry said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak is expected to witness the signing of the memorandum on Monday.

A conglomerate, China Southern Railways, is not a newcomer to the Malaysian rail industry.

In May 2010, Malaysia had acquired 38 sets of six-coach trains for the KTM Komuter services from the company.

It was also given the mandate to provide the maintenance, repairs and restoration works for the trains purchased.

Sept 28, Colombo: Sri Lanka Railway says that five locomotives that were imported recently from China have been added to ply on the Kelani Valley rail line and the Upcountry Line from Thursday.

These trains include four power sets and a luxury train. The four power sets are to run on the Kelani Valley Line from Colombo to Avissawella while the luxury train will run on upcountry railway line.

According to the Railway Planning Director Wijaya Samarasinghe has purchased 13 power sets from China and the five arrived in August have been added to the system after test runs.

''Four of them will be deployed on the Kelani Valley route and the other will be deployed to the upcountry route," Samarasinghe said.

The other eight trains to arrive from China include another luxury train and seven power sets. The consignment of trains is to arrive in the island before the end of this year, Sri Lanka Railways says.

The locomotives are to be deployed to enhance the state run railway services of Sri Lanka as the country is rebuilding hundreds of kilometers of railway lines unused for decades in the former war zones.

BEIJING - Even with an expanded web of railroads and upgraded computer systems, Chinese travelers still find it ironically difficult to buy train tickets for national holidays.

The upcoming extended "Golden Week" holiday, which starts on September 30 and runs through Oct 7, encompassing Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, has dumped a new test on railway authorities.

The Ministry of Railways (MOR) has upgraded its ticket booking website, 12306.cn, which was first opened late last year. However, it was met with sharp criticism as the site crashed periodically amid fielding hundreds of millions of page views daily before the holiday season.

One particular subject of complaint is the "queuing" - often, even after users submit orders, a reminder pops up saying they have to wait for half an hour to find out whether the orders are finalized and no success is guaranteed.

"Booking a ticket from the website is just as difficult as climbing Mount Qomolangma," one critic wrote on Twitter-style social networking site weibo.com.

To passengers and observers, it is certainly hard to understand why the website, with a reported investment of 330 million yuan (about $49 million), failed to function properly like major online retailers do with similar number of visits.

The MOR says visitor flow to 12306.cn neared 1.5 billion page views at peak times. However, given China's population of 1.3 billion, this challenge could surely have been anticipated and worked on.

Some have questioned whether corruption has hamstrung the new website project, the bid for which was made by Taiji Computer Co, Ltd. and Tsinghua Tongfang Co, Ltd. for technical support, affirming the public's lack of confidence in the transparency of railway departments.

One rule peculiar to the Chinese railway system and widely believed to be the culprit for difficult ticketing is that passengers are only allowed to start purchasing tickets 10 days ahead of the departure date, which always triggers a rush to booking sites on the first day of availability.

Unlike sales of air tickets in China, train tickets may only be bought at agents designated by the MOR and its official booking website. Loosening its monopoly and allowing professional online ticket agents to compete is believed to be the key to solving the lingering problem.

The MOR has listed various reasons why it has not been able to "open up" ticket distribution to competitors, citing management difficulties and technical barriers, but if it insists on a tight grip, the ministry really needs to work hard on its own distribution channel, probably by learning from counterparts in developed countries.

Repeated complaints from a billion or so passengers whenever major holidays arrive will only undermine the public's opinion of capabilities and further, credibility of the railway authorities.

BEIJING - A faster way of travel but with higher cost, high-speed rail in China continues to divide opinion.

The unveiling of high ticket prices for a new high-speed line set to open on Friday is garnering a new slew of controversy as many plan trips during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that run from September 30 to October 7.

Bullet trains on the Zhengzhou-Wuhan line, which also helps to connect several other major cities with existing lines in central and southern China, will run up to 300 km per hour and cut travel times by more than half. The downside is that prices for high-speed train tickets are about three times those for standard trains.

 
A bullet train arrives at a station in Chenzhou, Central China's Hunan province, on the

The high-speed train services are clearly better travel options for those who care little about the costs. Tickets around the busy travel season sold out soon after becoming available for booking.

A microblgger under the name of "tinybin" wrote on Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like service, that he often buy full-price air tickets during holidays, so he will consider the new, cheaper alternative.

The new line also offers a better option for people who don't like to spend a long time traveling or those who have a phobia of flying.

"It's very good news for people like me who fear air travel, "wrote a poster going by the name "Heibaipeipyf."

But for many low-income earners, particularly migrant workers, the high-speed train services are expensive.

The high ticket prices, coupled with a reduction in slower but cheaper train services, triggered a torrent of public complaints.

High-speed rail was supposed to be a good thing as it offers a new option, wrote a user of Sina Weibo under the name "Fanluntiannu."

"But after seeing the high prices, I was torn between choosing high-speed trains and flights for quite a while," the microblogger wrote.

Expensive fares have already led to high vacancy rates on many high-speed trains running on currently operational lines, leaving many slower trains packed with passengers without any seats.

A photo of a crammed train carriage with many standing and sitting in the aisle posted on Sina Weibo on Tuesday has prompted many to call again for a rethink of high-speed train ticket pricing policies.

"I hope the nation will show more care toward these people by lowering the prices of bullet train tickets a bit. Blessings to the good people far away from home," commented netizen "Lixiyougu" to the photo posting.

"Each year before the traditional Lunar New Year holiday, I often see rural migrants give up buying tickets when only high-speed train tickets are available," wrote "Tutuxixi." "The high prices leave them with no choice. It's very sad to see this kind of scene."

Many also said they would prefer to travel by air as flight tickets, discounted by about 50 percent on an average day, cost almost the same as high-speed rail services.

Even in the middle of last year, after the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway began operating, the public queried the price of tickets, complaining there was no opportunity to provide feedback on how pricey they were. The Ministry of Railways responded that the tickets were at trial prices and the initial operation period didn't need any price hearings.

"A network of high-speed railway lines has formed. Will it be that the ministry will let the initial operation go on and on?" a Sina Weibo poster nicknamed "Zhuluzhongyuan1111" questioned. 

The Transport Ministry yesterday said it was against the idea of overhauling the existing rail track network to standard gauge nationwide, pointing out that it would cost some Bt500 billion and take at least 40 years to complete such a switch-over.
It will, however, be possible to focus on construction of a further four high-speed train routes: Bangkok-Chiang Mai, Bangkok-Nong Khai, Bangkok-Rayong and Bangkok-Hua Hin.

The government's policy is to establish a high-speed train link with China and other Asean member states, a move that would strengthen the country's rail transportation and competitiveness.

Speaking at the "The Rail System: Leading to the AEC" seminar, Deputy Transport Minister Chatchart Sithipan said the government would have to spend a huge sum to undertake a nationwide switch-over to standard gauge, which would also take decades to complete.

It could not change the entire rail system, he said, adding that such massive spending would also increase public debt and negatively affect low-cost airlines.

"Thailand's high-speed rail lines will be operated within the next five years, running to southern China. The route will also carry more Chinese tourists to Thailand," he said.

Chatchai said the government would focus on a dual-track system by setting up high-speed rail lines parallel to existing track.

High-speed trains require a standard gauge that is 1.435 metres wide, while the existing rail track in Thailand uses a middle-range gauge with a width of 1 metre. The government will maintain the middle gauge for heavy-load weight transportation, he said.

Viroj Rujopakarn, lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering of Kasetsart University, said that despite the high mutual benefit of an extended high-speed rail system, the government should also take into account the effect of such a programme on the level of public debt, as it would need to borrow Bt100 billion for construction.

In addition, the government should consider other impacts from the project, such as the rapid expansion of cities along the high-speed rail routes, he said.

Pramuan Sutheejaruwattana, deputy director of the Transportation Institute of Chulalongkorn University, said the government should prepare a supply chain to support the operation of high-speed trains by ensuring proper maintenance, as 100 per cent of the parts would need to be imported.

"The BTS [Skytrain] and MRT [underground] have been operated here for more than 10 years, but there has been no technology transfer. We don't have the technicians and parts [for an extended high-speed train system], so we would have to prepare both manpower and the related industry," Pramuan said.
 

Malaysia is aiming to be a centre for railway development in ASEAN.

This news comes after China's largest railways giant, China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR), said it plans to open its first manufacturing facility outside China - in Malaysia.

China's largest train and locomotive manufacturer CSR is all geared to tap the growing demand for railway transport in Southeast Asia.

It is opening its first manufacturing facility outside China in Batu Gajah, Perak, some 200 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur.

Spanning some 20 hectares, the US$127 million facility will be ready in 2014.

Xu Zongxiang, executive director of CSR, said: "We believe Southeast Asia's demand for rail transport over the next five years will require over 1,000 vehicles to fulfil, estimated to be worth US$10.1 billion."

Malaysia hopes that CSR rail centre will provide the transfer of technology as well as the transfer of technical know-how to the nation so it can position itself as a railway hub of ASEAN.

An agreement was signed to promote cooperation in railway engineering and technology.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said: "There is much room for growth and expansion in the largely-untapped rail industry in Southeast Asia and beyond; there is no reason why Malaysia with our partners cannot explore those opportunities."

According to Mr Najib, Malaysia has been identified as a rail industry hotspot due to its aggressive measures to build new Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) lines and extend the existing Light Rapid Travel (LRT) lines.

It is also mulling the idea of developing a high-speed rail link between Malaysia and Singapore.

CSR currently has its presence in Singapore and Malaysia, and it is actively seeking new markets in ASEAN, in particular Thailand and Indonesia.

So far it has won orders in excess of 4,000 MRT and LRT vehicles across China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

BEIJING - China's railway police have launched a nationwide crackdown on ticket scalping, theft and other irregularities infringing upon travelers' legal rights during the upcoming holidays.

The campaign aims to "provide sound public order" for travelers during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays running from September 30-October 7, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Ministry of Railways' Public Security Bureau, which is supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

The holidays will witness a large influx of travelers to railway stations around scenic spots, as well as homecomings for family reunions, the statement pointed out, adding police should run inspections at key entrances of railway stations and prevent fires and explosive accidents.

Police will target those defrauding travelers by selling fake railway tickets and crack down on crimes using fake ticket purchasing websites or phone numbers to deceive buyers, it said, adding the current real-name registration system has helped curb ticket scalping to some degree.

BEIJING -- A new high-speed railway connecting Central China's Zhengzhou city and the eastern city of Wuhan opened on Friday morning, easing traffic pressure ahead of a boom in passenger numbers during the coming National Day holiday.

The railway, referred to as the Zheng-Wu high-speed railway, covers a distance of 536 km and trains will pass along it at a designed speed of 350 km per hour, said its designer, Li Zhengjun with the China Railway Construction Co Ltd.

With eight stops along the line, the Zheng-Wu high-speed railway has cut the travel time from Zhengzhou to Wuhan from four and a half hours to two hours, said Li, integrating the Central China economic zone and the Yangtze River Delta.

Looking at a map of China, the railway runs from north to south, connecting the middle parts of China's second-longest river --the Yellow River -- and the country's longest one -- the Yangtze River.

The Zheng-Wu line has also been linked to other high-speed railways, including Wuhan-Guangzhou, Hefei-Wuhan, and Zhengzhou-Xi'an, forming a high-speed railway network, said Li.

It is hoped that this network will greatly facilitate communication between central and eastern China areas concerning human resources and logistics.

It will also relieve pressure on the network from the National Day holiday travel peak in the coming week.

More than 660 million people are expected to travel during the week-long National Day holiday starting on Sunday, an increase of 8.8 percent from the same period last year, according to a prediction made by the Ministry of Transport last week.

Trains are the mainstream means of transport for Chinese holiday travelers.

Furthermore, Li noted that the opening of the Zheng-Wu high-speed railway will bring new life to cities along the railway.

Xu Keliang, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Construction Co Ltd, said the successful opening of the line further enriches China's experience on modern, high-speed railway design and construction.

As for the safety issue of high-speed rail, which has aroused heated debate, Xu said railway authorities have already made a number of tests on the high-speed train, track and running to guarantee safety.

Investment in the Zheng-Wu high-speed railway hit 69.4 billion yuan ($11 billion), with its construction taking about four years, according to Yu Zhuomin, chief of the Wuhan Railway Station Bureau.

Debt has remained high in the railway sector. The Ministry of Railways, the main investor in China's railway projects, reported a loss of 7 billion yuan in the first quarter, with its debt-to-asset ratio standing at around 60 percent.

As of July 2012, the combined length of China's high-speed railway has reached 13,000 km, the most out of any other country in the world.

China aims to construct a high-speed railway network with a total operating length of more than 40,000 km by the end of 2015. 

China’s top economic planner announced yesterday the approval of 25 new urban rail transit and intercity rail line projects with a total investment of more than 800 billlion yuan (US$127 billion) as the world’s second-largest economy struggles with a slowdown.
The projects, most of which will take three to eight years, are expected to inject vitality into the country’s slowing economy and improve the investment environment, but economists warned of low-efficiency investment.

The estimated investment for the new transit system will exceed 158 billion yuan in Shanghai and 124 billion yuan in Guangzhou, according to statements on the National Development and Reform Commission’s website.

Local governments will be major investors, and other financing channels mainly include bank loans.

Residents of second-tier cities such as Xiamen in Fujian province, Taiyuan in Shanxi province, and Lanzhou in Gansu province expect to commute with new subways in the coming years, and transport systems in cities such as Shanghai could become more convenient.

Sun Lijian, a senior economist at Fudan University in Shanghai, said infrastructure construction costs are high, so local governments must carefully analyze the yield on their investment.

“If the upgraded infrastructure and environment cannot attract more investment and tax revenue from enterprises, the investment is likely to turn into bad debt,” Sun said.

The NDRC has accelerated approval of projects since April, and local governments have launched many stimulus plans to bolster the economy, but banks have become more cautious due to increasing credit risks, economists said.

According to Chinese media reports, the investment in stimulus packages announced by some provincial and city governments adds up to more than 10 trillion yuan over the past few months.

China Securities Journal reported yesterday that the central government will further simplify the procedure to help companies raise more funds on the bond market and reduce reliance on banks.

The NDRC plans to give a “green pass” to low-income housing projects and projects under construction including transportation, telecommunications, railway construction and strategic emerging industries, the newspaper reported.

Issuing corporate bonds could help enterprises cope with liquidity shortfalls and attract “idle money”, Sun said.

However, if the funds that are raised fail to make real profits, such as a portion of the stimulus package launched during the financial crisis, the investment may eventually lead to bad assets and inflation, he added.

The latest data show the poor economic performance of the Chinese economy, which slowed to 7.6 per cent growth from April to June, the slowest pace in three years.

Demand for electricity declined in August with 444.49 billion kilowatt hours of power generated, down from 453.6 billion kilowatt hours in July, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission said yesterday.

The HSBC Holdings PLC’s China Services Purchasing Managers’ Index released yesterday fell to 52.0 in August from 53.1 in July, showing slower growth in service sector activity.

But that sector is still stronger than the manufacturing sector. HSBC’s China’s manufacturing activity fell to 47.6 in August. Anything below 50 indicates overall activity is contracting.

The official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics fell to a nine-month low of 49.2 from 50.1 in July.

Slower growth in China is seen as the biggest concern – more than the slowdowns in either Europe or the United States – to Asia’s economic growth, said a survey the think tank Pacific Economic Cooperation Council released yesterday.

As a group, the growth of emerging Asia-Pacific economies in recent years has been around 8 per cent, largely driven by China. From 2012 onward, they are expected to grow at above 6 per cent, said the survey.

The survey showed business executives, senior government officials and academics were more worried about the impact of the slowdown in China than they were about slowdowns in Europe and the US.

Views on emerging markets have turned from being equivocal to negative, it said. Around half of regional opinion leaders are expecting growth in China and India, the world’s two biggest emerging economies, to slow over the next 12 months.

Growth in the Asia-Pacific region this year is expected to increase slightly to 3.7 per cent from last year’s 3.5 per cent. Looking ahead to 2013, growth will be much the same, at 3.9 per cent.

The global economic slowdown had continued to affect regional economic integration as well as regional economic growth.

Problems in the eurozone weigh heavily on the outlook for the Asia-Pacific region. Europe imports around one-fifth of all the region’s exports, and European investors hold around one-third of the region’s financial assets.

Exports from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe have already dropped in the first half of this year, though not as much as they did in 2009, it said. 

China is offering Nigeria $1.1 billion in loans to help the West African nation build airport terminals, a light rail line for its capital city and communication system improvements, the country's Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The loans reflect the deepening economic ties between oil-rich Nigeria and China, which already is involved in building major road and railway projects in the nation. However, similar deals with China have fallen apart amid corruption allegations, problems that persist today and could potentially put this new deal at risk as well.

The light rail project for Abuja, the nation's central capital, would bring commuters in from suburbs surrounding the city's distant international airport and from neighbouring Nasarawa state, the finance ministry said. That project would cost about $500 million, the ministry said.

An increasing number of Shanghai residents are abandoning their cars and adopting what has been dubbed the BMW commute pattern - bus, metro, walk - to avoid traffic jams and parking charges.

Gu Liping, 34, recently stopped driving his car to work and moved to public transport, saving himself 40 minutes a day in travel time and 600 yuan ($95) a month in parking fees and gas.

"I used to think driving was more convenient than taking the subway, but as Shanghai's traffic has grown, public transport has become more comfortable and flexible," he said.

It takes Gu about 55 minutes by car from home to work and costs 20 yuan per day to park, but takes just 35 minutes by subway and costs 4 yuan for a single-trip ticket.

Gu is not alone in going BMW. About 47 percent of Shanghai residents who commute between work and home chose public transport last year, and the numbers are growing, Sun Jianping, head of the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority, said on Wednesday.

The city is expanding its public transport network to meet the increasing demand and ease traffic congestion, he added.

This includes plans to expand bus lanes from the existing 162 km to 300 km by the end of 2015, according to the municipal government.

Ding Shoufeng, a Shanghai bus driver, said that special bus lanes cut the time it takes to cover his route by a quarter, or 10 minutes, during non-peak times.

Shanghai has no plans to charge drivers a congestion fee or introduce traffic control measures, said Sun, adding that the city prefers instead to ease congestion by creating a public transport network that people want to travel on.

"Building an outstanding public transportation system will help enhance the city's competitive edge and will support the creation of an environmentally friendly society," Sun said.

Currently, Shanghai has around 50 bus hubs linking 208 routes and 55 metro stations across 12 subway lines.

The number of taxis in the city has also risen to 50,438, up 6 percent from 2005, according to the government.