Chinese Iron rooster coming your way

China so leads the way in rail and coach that it’s just one stop to your local station

High speed trains, capable of beating point-to-point short haul flying times, are now being manufactured by Alstom, Pendolino, Siemens, Bombardier, Hyundai-Rotem and Chinese Railways in bulk.

Nearly 50,000km of high speed track is now either in operation or under construction.

But China are so far in front of the field that it looks like a procession with a targeted 110,000 kilometers of train tracks by 2012 (from 78,000 in 2007) including an astonishing 20,000 kilometers of high speed track.

To put that into perspective, Spain (4,000km of high speed track), Japan (2,500km), France (2,100km) and Germany (1,500km) make up the rest of the top five rail nations. Russia and USA are both making billion-dollar investments in infrastructure and equipment but it looks a little late.

And don’t think that the recent high speed rail crash in China will dent her ambitions much. Manufacturing trains and laying lines is a major method of powering China out of recession.

The fact is that China Rail has enormous global ambitions, starting with a high speed network in China and rolling it our throughout the world, no less – with its own rolling stock no less. Is this a big investment? It’s a MASSIVE one $292 billion in fact, up to 2020. By 2012, the Chinese network is expected to grow from 78,000km at the end of 2007 to 110,000km. Plus enormous sums and commitment is planned to go into China’s manufacturing capacity.

Moreover the train operators see themselves as international companies in the same mould as airlines, running trans-continental routes. DB (Deutsche Bahn) has announced plans for a Germany-UK service, China Rail has announced plans for a service from China throughout Europe, ICE, TGV, Eurostar, Railjet, Thalys, Lyria are all sitting in the wings ready to act.

You can put on a flight to a destination in a couple of hours but it takes years to build a rail infrastructure. Slowly and quietly vast amounts of capital and expertise have been invested to build truly global ultra high-speed train networks.

And all this infrastructure gives China a massive manufacturing lead in rolling stock – with technology that was gleaned from western manufacturers China is now taking the lead in low cost manufacture.

So, possibly Chinese trains on Chinese rails all the way to your local station. And it doesn’t stop there – noticed a new brand of big bus lately ‘King Long’ strike a bell? Possibly the biggest cheapest coach manufacturer in the world. Chinese.

It’s poetic justice really, given that it’s no more than a century or two ago when the UK and Germany owned the railway lines and the rolling stock in China!

More about Chinese rail and other sustainable transport issues in the Sustainable Tourism Report 2011.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE