China's high-speed rail project runs out of steam

[Indx TechStyle]

China's high-speed rail project runs out of steam - Telegraph

China's high-speed network is likely to stretch to over 6,000 miles
Picture: AFP/GETTY
By Malcolm Moore, Beijing
1:00PM GMT 21 Feb 2012

China's high-speed rail project, the jewel of the country's transport policy and one of the most impressive feats of engineering in the world, has run out of money and will be scaled back dramatically this year.

Out of 23 current railway projects, some 70 per cent have been suspended, partly suspended, or delayed, according to the Chinese state media.
Meanwhile, an unnamed source toldDow Jones, the news agency, that only nine new railways would be commissioned this year, corpared to 70 last year.

Having run up enormous debts, the Chinese Railways ministry is struggling to persuade banks to continue to finance its ambitions.
Ticket sales, meanwhile, have been slow on some lines as travellers baulk at the price.

"The ministry cannot bear so much debt. It has already taken 240 billion yuan (£24 billion) of loans and if it takes much more how can it pay the interest?" said Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and senior consultant on the high-speed rail project.

"It can make profits of about 70 billion yuan on freight, but it is making no money on passenger travel. The government should cancel some of the debt, or invest some money itself rather than asking the banks to finance it," he added.

"A lot of projects are half-finished and while nine new lines have been approved this year, no one has started building them."

By the end of this year, China's high-speed network is likely to stretch to over 6,000 miles, transporting hundreds of millions of passengers in spacious long-nosed bullet trains. The 819-mile journey from Beijing to Shanghai, more than twice the distance from London to Edinburgh, now takes under five hours.

At the height of the high-speed boom, trains were being fitted with toilets that cost 1.2 million yuan (£120,000) a piece, and taps imported from Japan that cost 7,000 yuan, according to an investigation by Century Weekly magazine.

However, China's high-speed rail ambitions, which include tendering for the London to Birmingham high-speed link, took a blow last July when two trains collided, killing 40 and injuring almost 200.

A few months before the crash, China's Railway minister, Liu Zhijun was removed from his post and now faces corruption charges. Zhang Shuguang, the deputy chief engineer, who is also under investigation, reportedly paid £540,000 for a house in Los Angeles while on a monthly salary of a few hundred pounds.

Questions were raised about how much of the £190 billion high-speed rail budget had been siphoned off, and whether it would have an impact on the safety of the network.

In the wake of the crash, the Ministry found it increasingly expensive to borrow money, and no longer had access to the huge stimulus loans that were handed out in the wake of the financial crisis to keep the Chinese economy going.

"The Ministry's debts are now worth 60 per cent of its assets, and some analysts think they may rise to 70 per cent this year," reported the China Business Times.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

@Superdefender @Gessler @LETHALFORCE @Mikesingh @Blackwater
Dragon ki pocket bhi khali ho gayi.

 

[shiphone]

LOL....what a hopeless loser...
should the So called rich Indian family spend more money on the child's Education?...LOL?

errrrr......it seems that it's 24th Apr 2016 today...
----------------------------

China's high-speed network is likely to stretch to over 6,000 miles
Picture: AFP/GETTY
By Malcolm Moore, Beijing
1:00PM GMT 21 Feb 2012

By the end of this year, China's high-speed network is likely to stretch to over 6,000 miles, transporting hundreds of millions of passengers in spacious long-nosed bullet trains. The 819-mile journey from Beijing to Shanghai, more than twice the distance from London to Edinburgh, now takes under five hours.

6000 miles should be around 9000 KMs..

------------------------------------

just few days ago...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-to-30000-km-by-2020/articleshow/51922944.cms

BEIJING: China, which has the longest high-speed railway network in the world at over 19,000 km, plans to increase it to 30,000 km by 2020, a top official has said.

"By the end of 2015, the length of high-speed railway (HSR) lines in operation in China exceeded 19,000 km with nearly 10,000 km under construction, making the country top of the world in terms of length of high-speed railways both in operation and under construction," Vice General Engineer of the China Railway Corporation ..

what a "running out of steam"...........LOL>..

BTW...who is who is obvious...

 

[Indx TechStyle]

LOL....what a hopeless loser...
should the So called rich Indian family spend more money on the child's Education?...LOL?
errrrr......it seems that it's 24th Apr 2016 today...
----------------------------





6000 miles should be around 9000 KMs..

------------------------------------

just few days ago...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-to-30000-km-by-2020/articleshow/51922944.cms

Was posting news, nothing else.

 

[Mikesingh]

@Superdefender @Gessler @LETHALFORCE @Mikesingh @Blackwater
Dragon ki pocket bhi khali ho gayi.

The great Xi Dynasty! It's finally going bust.....

 

[spikey360]

Cheap things break down fast........................

 

[amoy]

I always try to recommend Indian posters put this HIGH SPEED RAIL & infra thing in perspective, rather than make shallow blabbers of "bubbles" busting routinely -

Keynesian economics Active fiscal policy

counter-cyclical policies.[13] An example of a counter-cyclical policy is raising taxes to cool the economy and to prevent inflation when there is abundant demand-side growth, and engaging in deficit spending on labour-intensive infrastructure projects to stimulate employment and stabilize wages during economic downturns.

 

[garg_bharat]

@amoy, I fully support China's high speed rail. It is better to focus on rail rather than air.

Rail moves far more people, needs less energy, and can run without fossil fuels.

Good show by China.

India also needs around 10000km of new high speed lines.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

@Sakal Gharelu Ustad
I apologize for my mistake that I posted news without getting eye once at that this news is 4 years old.

My apology to Chinese members @shiphone , @amoy , all Indian members, guests or everyone, whoever's time I have wasted because of my carelessness.
Won't repeat same mistake in future.

Please, delete the thread.
@sayareakd.

 

[salute]

Dragon ki pocket bhi khali ho gayi.

 

[Mikesingh]

Good show by China.

India also needs around 10000km of new high speed lines.

Show me the money! The costs for constructing such rail lines in India are estimated to be $15–22 million/km!!!

$15 million x 10000 =

Whatever, that amount is huge! Better to spend it on health and education, water conservation, agriculture etc.