China’s super rail network: London to Beijing in two days

China is in negotiations to build a high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains that capable of running at over 200mph within the next ten years. A trip from London to Beijing could take just two days.

The network would eventually carry passengers from London to Beijing and then to Singapore.

It would also run to India and Pakistan, Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China's domestic high-speed rail project, was quoted as saying.

A second project would see trains heading north through Russia to Germany and into the European railway system, and a third line will extend south to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.

Passengers could board a train in London and step off in Beijing, 5,070 miles away as the crow flies, in just two days. They could go on to Singapore, 6,750 miles away, within three days!.

"We are aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as aeroplanes," said Wang. "The best case scenario is that the three networks will be completed in a decade," he added.

Wang said that China was already in negotiations with 17 countries over the rail lines, which will draw together and open up the whole of Central, East and South East Asia. Wang said the network would also allow China to transport valuable cargoes of raw materials more efficiently.

"It was not China that pushed the idea to start with," said Wang. "It was the other countries that came to us, especially India. These countries cannot fully implement the construction of a high-speed rail network and they hoped to draw on our experience and technology," he said.

China is in the middle of a £480 billion domestic railway expansion project that aims to build nearly 19,000 miles of new railways in the next five years, connecting up all of its major cities with high-speed lines.

The world's fastest train, the Harmony Express which has a top speed of nearly 250mph, was unveiled at the end of last year, between the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou. Wholly Chinese-built, but using technology from Siemens and Kawasaki, the Harmony Express can cover 660 miles, the equivalent of a journey from London to Edinburgh and back, in just three hours.

The route of the three lines had yet to be decided. "We have also already carried out the prospecting and survey work for the European network, and Central and Eastern European countries are keen for us to start," Wang said.

- Asian Tribune -