China Creates Group to Coordinate Development of Advanced High-Speed Rail
03 July 2008
Xinhua. China has set up an interagency coordination group to enhance its ability to develop an advanced high-speed rail system.
The group will coordinate planning, research and development, industrial manufacturing and equipment upgrades, with a special focus on clearing technological obstacles to build a high-speed trunk line between Beijing and Shanghai. It will be co-chaired by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Minister Wan Gang, a former Audi chief technologist for hybrid vehicles; and Ministry of Railways (MOR) Minister Liu Zhijun.
MOR has tested the country’s first high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Tianjin since the end of May, with an average speed of 300 km per hour [186 mph]. Last week, President Hu Jintao test rode the train, which covered 120 km within 30 minutes.
On Tuesday, the country started to build its second inter-city high-speed rail line linking Nanjing and Shanghai, one of the most important business hubs in the Asia Pacific region. The 300-km line was estimated to cost 39.45 billion yuan (5.7 billion US dollars) and would be completed in four years.
...Among the 18,000 km of newly-built passenger railroads planned toward 2020, most were high-speed lines. The first commercial operation of the China High-speed Railway (CHR) would start before the opening of the Olympics on Aug. 8.
Well, I guess this is the type of innovation, construction, and wide-spread implementation that only a 'pre-democracy' state could accomplish in this short span of time. Interesting to see what type of disruption is being caused to local villages, environmentally sensitive regions, historical sites, and others. It appears that they are testing the hypothesis that it is better to build fast, disrupt and clean-up afterward; rather than to tread slowly, implement carefully, and seek consensus.
Posted by: Jer | 03 July 2008 at 09:11 AM
Jer:
Don't forget that we have developed the NOT IN MY BACKWARD and the HOW MUCH $$ FOR ME syndromes to the level required to block just about any large off-shore and in-land wind turbines, electrified high speed rails, new power lines, nuclear plants, electric vehicles etc. It is called the new improved super democracy at work.
Even the best system can go sour after a century or two.
To build 20 000 Km of high speed electric rails in USA or Canada would take up to 4 centuries not years. Many hundreds Km may have to be deep underground not to offense sensitive eyes and ears. The cost would be astronomical or so high that it could never be done.
Waging useless wars seems to be easier.
Posted by: HarveyD | 03 July 2008 at 09:32 AM
4 centuries to build only 20,000 km of rail when the US built nearly 70,000 km of interstate in only 40 years. By your reasoning it would have taken over a thousand years to do what was done in only 40 years in spite of hundreds of legal battles by NIMBYs. If anything recent Supreme Court rulings about eminent domain have made it easier for these projects to be carried out.
Posted by: tom deplume | 03 July 2008 at 10:11 AM
Tom:
Could it be that our democracy is adjusting and has found ways to go around progress blockers, hunters, sensitive eyes, ears etc.?
OTOH, many large wind turbines have been blocked for a very long time. One man (family) has managed to block a very well known off-shore project in the NE for almost two decades.
Times have changed. Objectors are better organized. Every Km of new high speed E-Rail could take decades to be approved. A full time second supreme court to rule on all the claims could help.
Posted by: | 03 July 2008 at 10:27 AM
The only effective public transportation solution is:
To go underground.
Posted by: Andrey Levin | 04 July 2008 at 01:54 AM