Shanghai hi-speed train project to start ¡¯soon¡¯

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has said the long-awaited Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is expected to begin construction soon. ‘Soon’ was as precise a date as was given.

He made the announcement at a national conference on railway innovation and, sadly, did not specify a date. But perhaps it would be fair to think of ’soon’ as being before the end of this year with a completion some considerable time after that.

Wonderful if it was completed in time for World Expo 2010 in Shanghai but considering the amount of work needed that is a big ask.

When finished the train should have a cruising speed of 300 kph and a top speed of 350 kph which will shorten travel time between the two cities from 13 hours to less than five.

At which point it starts to rival air travel. It is not the time taken by the flight that counts. It is getting to the airport, getting checked in and then all the nonsense at the other end.

Train takes you city center to city center and at five hours it would be the preferred option.

The project has been on the drawing board for about ten years and it was thought it would start last year to be in plenty of time for 2010 but that now seems a target too far.

The Beijing-Shanghai railway was initially estimated to cost RMB130 billion ($17.2 billion), but it is probably going to go beyond that because of the delay in starting.

It was one of the 10 goals set by the ministry for its 11th Five-Year period (2006-10). There will be 7,000 km of new track so the completion date of 2010 is a bit hopeful. After that comes a train system — Beijing-Tianjin, Wuhan-Guangzhou, and Zhengzhou-Xi’an. Which will be wonderful.