Chinese Offer High-Speed Trains at 4 Speeds
125, 155, 187, 217 mph
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) November 10, 2017
Chinese high-speed rail has experienced tremendous development, benefiting more and more passengers with its speed and convenience.
In 2016, the number of bullet train passengers in China grew to 1.47 billion, accounting for 52.3% of the total railway passengers, up from 33.3%. Nearly 4.03 million people are riding bullet trains each day.
China is making efforts to balance the layout of its high-speed railway network. The operating mileage in central and western China has increased to 13,000 kilometers (8,078 miles) in 2016, up from 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) in 2012, accounting for over half of China’s total mileage of high-speed rail.
By the end of 2016, China had established the world’s largest bullet train network, with a total mileage of 22,000 kilometers (13,670 miles).
In order to meet the travelling demand of different groups of people, China’s high-speed trains are running at four speed levels: 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph), 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph), 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph), and 350 kilometers per hour (217 mph). China is the only country in the world to operate high-speed trains at so many speed levels on the same railway network.
It only took five years for the country to establish the main framework of the high-speed railway network, said Wang Yuze, vice president of China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd., attributing the success to the country’s efforts to encourage innovation.
China currently has a total of more than 2,700 bullet trains making 4,500 trips each day. These trains have carried over 6 billion passengers in total.
According to the 13th Five-Year Plan, another 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles) of high-speed rail will be built before 2020, bringing the total mileage to over 30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles) and covering more than 80% of the country’s major cities.
