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Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Cheaper fares on fast trains to come
Another set of high-speed trains will eventually be introduced on the mainland that will run more slowly and offer lower fares, according to a top rail expert.
Another set of high-speed trains will eventually be introduced on the mainland that will run more slowly and offer lower fares, according to a top rail expert.
Wang Mengshu, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that when the network became more extensive and the operation more mature, trains running at a more economical speed of 200km/h would be launched with considerably lower fares. Government officials higher than those at the Ministry of Railways would determine the date, he said.
“Rich people, those who need to travel at 350km/h or faster, can buy the higher-priced tickets; poor people or those who prefer the lower speed can buy the cheaper ones,” Wang said on Sunday. “Both are safe and fast. It will be totally fair.”
He was responding to criticism of the system’s expensive fares and poor return on investment.
For example, the high-speed trains between Wuhan in Hubei and Guangzhou currently run at 350km/h, with a one-way ticket costing 500 yuan (HK$568). Although a ticket to travel more than 1,000 kilometres costs far more in Europe and Japan, many mainland residents, especially migrant workers, would find 500 yuan expensive.
“That’s just the beginning. That will be changed,” said Wang, a key drafter of the mainland’s ambitious programme to build 18,000 kilometres of high-speed railways with trillions of yuan in investment by 2020.
In 1998, when he first proposed the high-speed railway system to the National People’s Congress, delegates were more interested in building expressways and maglev lines.
But they were forced to reset their goals, he said. Building a mid-sized expressway uses about three times more land. Also, more cars on the road would not only emit more pollutants but also drag the mainland into a greater reliance on imported oil.
Maglev trains are also expensive: The 30.5-kilometre line in Shanghai that runs between the city and Pudong airport cost nearly 10 billion yuan to build.
Given these factors, high-speed railways began to make more sense.
“High-speed trains are powered by electricity. The engines are quiet and cool. Their energy efficiency is as high as 80 per cent ... So high-speed trains are more efficient than traditional trains. They will also be cheaper to run,” Wang said.
Critics say China will not reclaim its investment because the demand for the high-speed rail service is inadequate. But Wang said government leaders have concerns that make the system valuable in other than monetary terms.
“One reason is jobs,” he said. “Construction of high-speed rail lines can provide six million jobs. To boost employment, we have stopped importing heavy machinery from Western countries. We are using some labour-intensive but highly effective engineering methods that can reduce costs and ensure construction quality at the same time.
“Another is national security. Several lines are going to Xinjiang. One is going to Tibet from Yunnan . We can mobilise soldiers to these unstable regions rapidly, if need be, on high-speed trains.
“Some critics say we should build [high-speed trains] only when our cities develop to a very high level. That’s short-sighted,” he said. “We have to build basic infrastructure before our economy takes the next leap. It will not only make development faster and easier but less costly.”
Wang said the mainland would soon launch several huge high-speed rail projects, with the largest one linking nearly all the coastal cities from Dalian in the northeast to Hainan in the south. These projects are expected to be completed between 2020 and 2025.
A part of that line is the link that connects Beijing with Wuhan, which is expected to begin service next year, according to the Beijing Times.
The investment in high-speed railways from 2008 was abnormally high, Wang conceded, and much of the investment was financed by loans from state-owned banks. Xinhua reported that the total investment in the next six years would reach 3.7 trillion yuan, and the Ministry of Railways’ total debt would exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2020.
There is also a workforce issue. The ministry’s half-million engineers and construction workers could not meet the deadline by themselves, so China State Construction Engineering Corp and Sinohydro Corp were summoned to help.
It is a lot of investment, and that means lots of work. “When the financial crisis is over,” Wang said, “I think the investment will stabilise at 200 billion yuan a year.”
2 comments:
Cheaper fares on fast trains to come
Rail planner defends investment of trillions
Stephen Chen
09 March 2010
Another set of high-speed trains will eventually be introduced on the mainland that will run more slowly and offer lower fares, according to a top rail expert.
Wang Mengshu, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that when the network became more extensive and the operation more mature, trains running at a more economical speed of 200km/h would be launched with considerably lower fares. Government officials higher than those at the Ministry of Railways would determine the date, he said.
“Rich people, those who need to travel at 350km/h or faster, can buy the higher-priced tickets; poor people or those who prefer the lower speed can buy the cheaper ones,” Wang said on Sunday. “Both are safe and fast. It will be totally fair.”
He was responding to criticism of the system’s expensive fares and poor return on investment.
For example, the high-speed trains between Wuhan in Hubei and Guangzhou currently run at 350km/h, with a one-way ticket costing 500 yuan (HK$568). Although a ticket to travel more than 1,000 kilometres costs far more in Europe and Japan, many mainland residents, especially migrant workers, would find 500 yuan expensive.
“That’s just the beginning. That will be changed,” said Wang, a key drafter of the mainland’s ambitious programme to build 18,000 kilometres of high-speed railways with trillions of yuan in investment by 2020.
In 1998, when he first proposed the high-speed railway system to the National People’s Congress, delegates were more interested in building expressways and maglev lines.
But they were forced to reset their goals, he said. Building a mid-sized expressway uses about three times more land. Also, more cars on the road would not only emit more pollutants but also drag the mainland into a greater reliance on imported oil.
Maglev trains are also expensive: The 30.5-kilometre line in Shanghai that runs between the city and Pudong airport cost nearly 10 billion yuan to build.
Given these factors, high-speed railways began to make more sense.
“High-speed trains are powered by electricity. The engines are quiet and cool. Their energy efficiency is as high as 80 per cent ... So high-speed trains are more efficient than traditional trains. They will also be cheaper to run,” Wang said.
Critics say China will not reclaim its investment because the demand for the high-speed rail service is inadequate. But Wang said government leaders have concerns that make the system valuable in other than monetary terms.
“One reason is jobs,” he said. “Construction of high-speed rail lines can provide six million jobs. To boost employment, we have stopped importing heavy machinery from Western countries. We are using some labour-intensive but highly effective engineering methods that can reduce costs and ensure construction quality at the same time.
“Another is national security. Several lines are going to Xinjiang. One is going to Tibet from Yunnan . We can mobilise soldiers to these unstable regions rapidly, if need be, on high-speed trains.
“Some critics say we should build [high-speed trains] only when our cities develop to a very high level. That’s short-sighted,” he said. “We have to build basic infrastructure before our economy takes the next leap. It will not only make development faster and easier but less costly.”
Wang said the mainland would soon launch several huge high-speed rail projects, with the largest one linking nearly all the coastal cities from Dalian in the northeast to Hainan in the south. These projects are expected to be completed between 2020 and 2025.
A part of that line is the link that connects Beijing with Wuhan, which is expected to begin service next year, according to the Beijing Times.
The investment in high-speed railways from 2008 was abnormally high, Wang conceded, and much of the investment was financed by loans from state-owned banks. Xinhua reported that the total investment in the next six years would reach 3.7 trillion yuan, and the Ministry of Railways’ total debt would exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2020.
There is also a workforce issue. The ministry’s half-million engineers and construction workers could not meet the deadline by themselves, so China State Construction Engineering Corp and Sinohydro Corp were summoned to help.
It is a lot of investment, and that means lots of work. “When the financial crisis is over,” Wang said, “I think the investment will stabilise at 200 billion yuan a year.”
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