China has approved construction of two city subway projects worth 49 billion yuan (￡4.91 billion), adding to the list of recent railway project approvals aimed at boosting growth in the world's second biggest economy.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's state planning agency, also approved a feasibility study on an inter-city rail line between Fuzhou and Pingtan, an island off the coast of Fujian, worth a further 26 billion yuan, the official Shanghai Securities News reported.

The projects appear aimed at shoring up growth in China's economy, which has slowed for seven consecutive quarters, most recently posting 7.4 percent annual growth for the third quarter.
More recent data, however, has shown signs of a recovery, with fixed-asset investment, factory output, and retail sales all beating expectations in October.

Shanghai Securities News, citing an announcement from the NDRC, reported the agency had approved construction of a second subway line in Fuzhou, the capital city of prosperous Fujian province, on China's east coast.

The commission also approved construction of the first two subway lines in Urumqi, the capital of western China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the paper reported.

The Fuzhou project, which will take four years to complete, is worth 18 billion yuan, while the Urumqi project will total 31 billion yuan and is due for completion in 2019.

The latest project approvals come on the back of a slate of rail and other projects approved in recent months. In early September, NDRC approved 25 rail projects totalling $110 billion.

Reuters estimated that a flurry of new project approvals announced in early September, when concerns about the slowing economy were at their peak, totalled $157 billion.

Last month, the Ministry of Railways announced it had raised its spending plan for 2013 to 630 billion yuan from 610 billion announced in September.

China's high-speed rail network in operation totaled 7,735 km at the end of October, ranking it first in the world in terms of the size of its high-speed infrastructure, said an official from the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday.

The country has made a series of technological breakthroughs in constructing high-speed railways and in other major fields such as heavy-duty and high-latitude rail transport, the unidentified official said on the sidelines of Modern Railways 2012, an international railway exhibition hosted by the ministry and opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

At the exhibition, the country's two biggest train manufacturers -- China CSR Corp Ltd and China CNR both displayed new exhibits. China CSR showcased its test trains that can travel at over 500 km per hour, and China CNR exhibited its self-developed fast intercity trains -- CRH3A.

A total of 263 companies from 16 countries and regions including the United States, Germany and France participated in the exhibition.

China aims to create a high-speed railway backbone featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines by the end of 2015, under a five-year plan on China's transport system approved by the State Council, China's cabinet.

The country's total length of high-speed railway is expected to reach about 18,000 km by 2015.

China's high-speed trains that will travel across the country's frigid northeastern regions are designed to withstand sharp changes in temperature, a chief engineer said Wednesday.

The country's first cold-proof high-speed trains are expected to run from Saturday and any problems with sharp changes in temperature that once forced Eurostar to halt services in 2009 look to have been solved.

The trains, to withstand minus 40 degrees Celsius temperature, will travel 921 kilometers between Harbin in Heilongjiang Province and Dalian in Liaoning Province.

CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of the country's major train maker China CNR Corp., developed the cold-proof train cars.

Kong Feng, a senior engineer with the company, said his team had solved the problem Eurostar trains once encountered, which is considered a major challenge for developing cold-proof trains.

In December 2009, the Eurostar service was brought to a halt by the snow and cold temperatures in northeastern France.

Experts believe snow got into the power car and melted after the trains entered the warmth of the under-sea tunnel beneath the English Channel. This caused electrical breakdowns.

Kong said the key lies in optimizing the condensate water-proof system of the train while adding highly advanced anti-condensate water equipment on the exterior.

Kong said in test runs conducted in October, the CNR train cars beat snow storms and extremely-low temperatures.

The maximum speed hit 385 km per hour while the train was able to maintain 350 km per hour, he added.

The Ministry of Railways earlier said the trains on the Harbin-Dalian route will adopt different speeds -- 200 km per hour during winter (Dec. 1 to March 31) while traveling 300 km per hour in summer (April 1 to Nov. 30).

With 23 stops along the route, including the renowned industrial base Shenyang city, the line will cut traveling times between the two cities to about four hours from nine hours.

China aims to create a high-speed railway backbone network featuring four east-west lines and four north-south lines by the end of 2015.

The country now has more than 6,800 km of high-speed railway lines on which trains run at a speed of 200 km per hour or above. The length of the high-speed lines is expected to reach 18,000 km by 2015. 

Nearly 150 years after American railroads brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction.

But this time, it would be an entirely different role: supplying the technology, equipment and engineers to build high-speed rail lines.

Nearly 150 years after American railroads brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction.

But this time, it would be an entirely different role: supplying the technology, equipment and engineers to build high-speed rail lines.

The Chinese government has signed cooperation agreements with the State of California and General Electric to help build such lines.

The agreements, both of which are preliminary, show China’s desire to become a big exporter and licensor of bullet trains traveling 215 miles an hour, an environmentally friendly technology in which China has raced past the United States in the last few years.

successfully tested a brand new train capable of hitting 310 miles per hour this past weekend. The prototype bullet train is made from lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced plastics and designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword – and it’s 100 mph faster than China’s current top of the line trains. Though many are wary of the safety of China’s railway ambitions, the Chinese government is moving forward while maintaining that safety is of the utmost concern.

The high-speed rail route from Beijing to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou will open next month, cutting the 2,200-km journey time by 14 hours, according to the Ministry of Railways. A trial operation along the Beijing-Zhengzhou section, the last part of the route, began on Sunday morning. 

CSR Sifang Company, a subsidiary of China’s leading train maker CSR Corporation Limited, recently unveiled the country’s first independently developed super-speed test train, providing a research platform for improving the safety and reliability of commercial high-speed trains.

The test train marks a significant progress in the prospective study on high-speed trains, and will give China a greater saying in the global high-speed rail sector.

China's high-speed train CRH380A set a new world train speed record at 486.1 kilometers per hour on Dec. 3, 2010. The super-speed test train was developed based on CRH380A, and is completely different from mass-produced commercial trains because its main function is to provide a testing platform for establishing a safe and reliable high-speed rail system.

The test train has a sword-shaped head and a rocket-shaped rear end like that of CRH380A. After extensive conceptual design, simulation analysis and wind tunnel experiments, designers worked out a combination of a sword-shaped head and a rocket-shaped rear end for the test train, which can minimize the air resistance on the locomotive and the life force on the rear end of the test train.

“CSR Corporation Limited independently developed this cutting-edge product, which meets internationally accepted technical standards. The test train not only provides a platform for developing safer and faster high-speed trains, but also lays a solid foundation for China’s high-speed train exports,” the company’s chief technician Ma Yunshuang said.
 

The stalled train link project between Laos and China will commence next year after receiving a financial lifeline from a Chinese bank.

Initially agreeing to jointly fund the link, Beijing pulled out earlier this year, citing concerns of profitability, The Malaysian Insider reported.

However, receiving the necessary funding earlier this week, the US$7 billion link is expected to be up and running within five year and will run from the Chinese border to Vientiane, according to The Malaysian Insider.

A Chinese firm has been called in to carry out construction, which will link Chinese city, Kunming to Singapore.
 

China news agency, Changchun, November 20 (He Baoqing and Yao Dan) - Reporter learned from China CNR long passenger AG, started on the 20th, the company is located in Wuhan track equipment build and repair base, this base will form the output value of 10 billion yuan become the Midwest's largest rail transportation equipment development and maintenance base.

This project is jointly funded and constructed by China CNR long passenger AG, Wuhan Metro Group Co., Ltd. and Hubei Province United Development Investment Group Co., Ltd. Hubei Province, China CNR both sides to conduct strategic cooperation, to build the rail transportation industry development of central China The core of the latest results.

Equipment in new base is mainly engaged in the rail vehicle, vehicle repairs and parts sales, vehicle leasing, technical services, and business. Overall planning of land area of ??about 1,500 acres, with a total investment of about 32 billion of which one or two projects to invest 1.7 billion yuan, mainly construction of rail transportation equipment, building and repairing the base and rail transportation integration implementation center, Phase III plans to invest 15 billion yuan, planning and construction related area and human services area, the introduction of wind power equipment and diesel engines, ship manufacturing, real estate development and other emerging industries.

According to reports, after the completion of a second phase project will have a year in new rail vehicles 600 years factory overhaul of rail vehicles 300 80 year frame repair rail train capacity after the completion of the final three works, will achieve 100 billion yuan output value.

Wuhan is one of China's core rail transportation hubs in the world, is a the Jingguang deep, Ninghan Rong, Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu and many other high-speed railway, intercity rail and the junction of the railway line, Wuhan also has the largest city in central China rail transportation network, long-term planning Subway total length of 540 km.

The long passenger said, either newly built rail transit vehicles or both late vehicle maintenance, there is a big demand in Wuhan start of the project, not only to provide quality rail vehicles in Hubei Province and the central city group safeguard this high-speed maintenance and safe operation of the EMU are also of great significance.

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China plans to spend 600 billion yuan ($96 billion) building railway infrastructure next year, with 60 percent of the investment going to high-speed projects, a senior executive from China's leading rail.
 

The Lao government will proceed with the construction of a US$7 billion Laos-China high-speed railway even though China has withdrawn from the joint venture.

At an extraordinary session yesterday, National Assembly members decided to approve the project, after concluding that it is essential for national development at a time when economic integration is viewed as the future of the region.

Laos and China had previously planned to jointly undertake the railway project, which would connect Vientiane with the Laos-China border in Luang Namtha province.

However, the project was delayed when the Chinese construction company pulled out because they felt it would not be profitable enough.

Laos has now decided to assume sole ownership of the project, as it considers that transforming the country from being landlocked to a land link is central to the future of the nation’s development.

The railway is now set to go ahead without any other direct stakeholders, but will be financed by a loan from China.

Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad reported on the project to the National Assembly yesterday, recounting developments to date.

He stressed how important the railway is in terms of turning Laos into a land link within the region, attracting more foreign investment, and boosting economic growth.

Mr Somsavat said the EXIM Bank of China will provide a loan to cover the cost of construction, which is considerable given the scale of the project.

The ground-breaking ceremony is expected to take place during the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit on November 5-6 when top ranking leaders from both Laos and China will be present.

Mr Somsavat said the railway will be about 420 km long, with a standard gauge track of 1.435 metres. The cost of construction is estimated to be about 44.25 billion yuan (about US$7 billion).

A 50-metre wide section of land will be cleared along the length of the railway on either side, and will be fenced off for security reasons.

At tunnels, however, the width of the land cleared will extend to 100 metres, while at major train stations parcels of land measuring 3,000 by 250 metres will be allocated for development.

In the original project agreement, passenger trains running at speeds of up to 200 kph were planned but the Lao government has decided to reduce this to 160 kph for safety reasons, partly due to the hilly terrain. Goods trains meanwhile will travel at a maximum speed of 120 kph.

Mr Somsavat said passenger trains might be able to reach a speed of 200km per hour between Vientiane and Vangvieng where the land is relatively flat, but more studies are needed.

The railway will be designed along similar lines to existing projects in China, which has considerable experience in building high speed rail links.

The railway will require 76 tunnels and 154 bridges to be built, including two bridges across the Mekong River. The tunnels and bridges alone represent more than 60 percent of the total route, such is the mountainous nature of northern Laos. The project will include 31 stations in all, but the government plans to open 20 stations initially and the rest later on.

There will be seven major stations along the route, of which two will be in Vientiane. From there, the railway will run north to China, stopping at Phonhong and Vangvieng districts in Vientiane province, before continuing on to Luang Prabang Oudomxay, Luang Namtha and the Chinese border. 

The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Monday declared open its railway technology training center mainly set up to train local artisans and technicians on how to manage the Nigerian construction industry.

At the unveiling ceremony of the Idu Training Center, Qi Xiaotian, a member of the top management of the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), said the training scheme is necessary for Nigerian employees with the development and operation of the Nigerian modern railways and urban mass transit rail system in Abuja and Lagos.

He said the training scheme will provide more talents for the local railway management and operation, maintanence and workshops. The CCECC has the responsibility to introduce more technology and technique to lcoal employees for Nigeria's further development in mass transport services, he explained.

The training program, with its pilot phase commencing in Idu located in Nigeria's capital city Abuja, is expected to create a link between government and the masses in a way that the latter will be highly skilled to be absorbable by the construction industry in Nigeria, Honorary President of the Abuja Training School Jonathan Olopade also said at the brief unveiling ceremony.

"We are creating a link between the construction industry and the local technicians and artisans in a way that brings them up to the standard that can match our needs as well as address the structural unemployment concerns of the country," he said further.

Over the years, the Nigerian railway which was a very lucrative transport operator during and immediately after the country's colonial era had gone into extinction. But the new initiative by CCECC and its local collaborators will help bring back the past glory of the Nigerian railway to its place of pride, according to Olopade.

Noting that the training school's objective is to be a major contributor to the net capacity development of master technicians and artisans in the country, the institute's honorary president said the training school will be regarded as one of the major corporate social responsibilities of the CCECC to the Nigerian masses in recent times.

"We are starting off with the Abuja Training School and our intent is that in due time, we will move to Lagos and some other parts of the country," he added.

An the ceremony, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria Deng Boqing said that in the past few years, the CCECC has well established itself in the infrastructural sector in Nigeria and achieved fast growth in the development. According to him, the training school is aimed at cultivation of talents in Africa and Nigeria, which is one of the major tasks for the Chinese companies operating in Africa.

"This opening of the school marks the implementation of targets set by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing in July," Deng noted, adding that he sincerely wished the training program success in the coming years.

CCECC Nigeria Ltd, which provides construction and engineering services in the west African nation, has over 10,000 local staffs who need to be properly trained on how to operate, manage and carry out maintenance in the Nigerian railway sector.