The Unstoppable Growth of China's High-Speed Rail Network - YouTube

This high-speed train is arriving in Nanjing  after its 190mph journey across China.  

On board are people going to work or seeing  friends in the city. They’re passengers  

making use of what’s now the biggest high  speed rail network anywhere in the world.

But that statement doesn’t come anywhere near  close to explaining what this actually is.

Two thirds of the world’s entire high  speed rail network is now in China.

In the 12 years since its first line opened,  the country has dramatically out-built every  

other nation and now plans to double the size of  its high speed network in just the next 15 years.

Travel times have fallen, the country’s economy  has boomed, cities have exploded - and the rest of  

the world has been left wondering how they’ll ever  come close to building at such an insatiable pace.

This is the unstoppable, high speed growth  of China’s high speed rail network explained.

There are high speed rail networks around the  world – but then there’s the network in China.

It’s an insanely large web of track that’s  helped ignite an economic powerhouse.  

In little over a decade, the country has built  enough high speed lines to almost circle the globe  

and the system welcomed 1.7  billion passengers in 2019 alone.

To put that in context, the UK built  a high speed rail line between London  

and the Channel Tunnel in the 2000s that’s  equivalent to 0.2% of China’s current network.

The new HS2 line was first proposed in 2009  and Phase 1 of it is due to complete in 2033.

The US has one high speed line in the north  east but it’s arguably not actually high speed  

and California’s new line won’t open before 2029.

Of course, the approach to high speed rail in these countries is very different, and we'll come back to that a little later on.

To properly understand how this  jaw-dropping network came to be  

and where it’s headed, you need to  look at the story of modern China.

Since the 1980s the country  has roughly doubled its GDP  

every eight years. More than 800 million people  have been lifted out of poverty, and between  

the year 2000 and 2018 over 47 percent of the  population has risen to middle-class status.

Cities few had heard of 20 years ago are  now vast metropolises. Across the country,  

skyscrapers soar above your head, factories  team with activity and trade booms.

This isn’t all down to high speed rail. The fast  lines have played a huge role in accelerating the  

country’s growth since 2008, but before  that train systems were under pressure.

Faced with buckling infrastructure, state  planning for high speed rail began in 1990  

and the first line between Beijing  and Tianjin opened in 2008,  

cutting travel between the two  cities from 70 minutes to 30.

Other lines were quickly introduced, linking  the cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and more.

Initial trains were imported or built  under technology transfer agreements with  

foreign train-makers, but since then, Chinese  engineers have become leaders in the field.

The country now has the world’s longest high-speed  rail line, between Beijing and Guangzhou,  

the world’s fastest high speed  line, between Beijing and Shanghai,  

and the world’s first commercial maglev  line - reaching a top speed of 267mph.

As of 2021, China’s high-speed  rail network stretches for  

37,900 kilometres, while its entire rail  track length runs for over 141,000 kilometres.

By 2035, the high speed network will  have grown to 70,000 kilometres,  

and the total rail length will  extend over 200,000 kilometres.

China’s case for high speed rail continues  to strengthen. The lines it’s built have  

drastically shortened travel times, improved  safety, reduced carbon emissions, and allowed  

many Chinese people from rural or less developed  areas to access to the country’s massive cities.

Studies have also found that tourism  increases by around 20 percent  

in provinces connected to the high speed network.

The plans for expansion are intended  to build on this success but also to  

address the country’s wealth discrepancy problem.

The rich coastal region cities of Beijing and  Shanghai have a far higher nominal per  

capita income - sometimes more than double  or quadruple that of those living inland.

Beijing hopes new lines will  grow more regional hubs.  

By 2035, all cities with a population of  more than 200,000 people will be connected by  

rail - and those with more than half a million  people will have access to high speed rail.

The strategy also helps Beijing with  its desire to unify the country.

A standard rail line was built from Beijing  to Tibet despite its small population,  

while a high speed line links the capital directly  with Hong Kong; a special administrative region.

In the central government’s own  words, the high-speed line to  

the north western Xinjiang province, native home to the Uyghurs, was partly built to promote what it calls “ethnic unity”.

So how has China built such a  massive high speed rail network  

while other countries have been left standing?

The first reason is demand.

The US has eight cities with more five million  people, India has seven, Japan has three, the UK  

just one. China has 14. The Shanghai-Beijing  line alone serves more than 300 million people.

This unprecedented rate of urbanisation,  combined with rising household incomes  

creates a need for the fast delivery  of people and goods across the country.

At the same time, China’s heavily congested  airspace often causes flight delays  

and high speed rail is not only  cheaper but hugely more reliable.

The high levels of demand allow  the Chinese government to make  

massive investments in high-speed  technology and infrastructure.

The sheer scale of the country’s ambition combined  with a credible plan to build such a big network  

and the fact that nearly all of China’s  rail is controlled by the state-owned  

China Railway Corporation means that high volumes  of materials can be ordered and produced at once.

The country has also standardised  nearly every aspect of construction.  

Embankments, track, viaducts,  electrification, signalling and  

communication systems are all the same,  no matter where you are in the country.

This lowers construction costs, enables  offsite manufacturing and cuts build times.

In Europe, high-speed rail costs around USD $25M  to $39M per kilometre, while in the US it totals  

around $56M. In China it’s down at $17M, up  to two-thirds lower than other countries.

Of course, there’s a few things that  bring the cost of building down.  

In 2021, more than 40 percent  of China’s population - around  

600 million people - still live on less  than $5 a day and labour costs are low.

Land acquisition is also easier than elsewhere,  partly due to the country’s rural geography,  

and political system.

The process of moving people out  of the way of a new line in the US  

accounts for around 20 percent of the project  cost. In China that’s less than 8 percent.

The country has also kept high speed rail fares  

low for the average person - tickets are  a quarter of the cost of other nations.

Interestingly this often means forgoing making  any profit on the lines constructed. Instead  

China sees the social and wider economic impact  of it’s high speed network as more valuable.

As he took office in February 2021,  US Transportation Secretary Pete  

Buttigieg said he’d like to see America  lead the world in high speed rail.

While it may be possible to set the country  on a course towards that during his term,  

the chances of the US overtaking China by building  70,001 kilometres of track in the next two decades  

feels remote.

Though high speed rail may  seem out of reach to many,  

the current economic crisis  could be an opportunity.

In 2008, China responded to  the Global Financial Crisis  

by investing heavily in high-speed infrastructure,  stimulating its economy and creating jobs.

Today, that network is the lifeblood of this huge,  ambitious, beautiful and complex country.

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