Rail Transport in ChinaRail Transport in ChinaRail transport is an important mode of long-distance transportation in China. As of 2021, the country had more than 150,000 km (93,206 mi) of railways, the second longest network in the world. By the end of 2021, China had more than 40,000 kilometres (24,855 miles) of high-speed rail (HSR), the longest HSR network in the world. Almost all rail operations are handled by the China State Railway Group Company, Limited, a state-owned company created in March 2013 (as China Railway Corporation) after the dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. It was converted into a joint-stock company and placed under the control of the Ministry of Finance in June 2019. China's railways are the busiest in the world. In 2019, railways in China delivered 3.660 billion passenger trips, generating 1,470.66 billion passenger-kilometres and carried 4.389 billion tonnes of freight, generating 3,018 billion cargo tonne-kilometres. Freight traffic turnover has increased more than fivefold over the period 1980-2013 and passenger traffic turnover has increased more than sevenfold over the same period. During the five years 2016-2020, China's railway network handled 14.9 billion passenger trips, 9 billion of which were completed by bullet trains, the remaining 5.9 billion by conventional rail. The three figures surged 41 percent (from 10.6 to 14.9 billion), 152 percent (from 3.6 to 9 billion) and decreased 16 percent (from 7 to 5.9 billion) from those during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, respectively. Driven by need to increase freight capacity, the railway network has expanded with the country budgeting $130.4 billion for railway investment in 2014, and has a long-term plan to expand the network to 274,000 km (170,000 mi) by 2050. China built 9,000 km of new railway in 2015. History of Rail Transport in China Rail Transport in China Qing Dynasty (1876-1911) The first recorded railway track to be laid in China was a 600-metre long miniature gauge demonstration line that a British merchant assembled outside the Xuanwumen city gate at Beijing in 1865 to demonstrate rail technology. The Qing government was uninterested and had the line dismantled. The first railroad to enter commercial service was the Woosung railway, a 9 ¼ mi (14 km) railway from Shanghai to Woosung (modern Shanghai's Baoshan District) which opened in 1876. This was also built by the British, without approval from the Qing government, which had the line dismantled one year later. Until the defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War, the government remained hostile toward railway construction. Beginning in 1895, the government began to grant rail concessions to foreigners, and permitted direct connection to the capital Beijing. During the Republic of China era from 1912 until 1949, the development of the railway network in China slowed due to repeated civil wars and the invasion of Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. One of the few exceptions was in Northeastern China (Manchuria). The Russians opened the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1901, after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Japanese gained control of the portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway south of Changchun, using it to create the South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR) in 1906, this company was often referred to as "Japan's East India Company in China" due to its extensive influence in the political and economic situation of Manchuria. During the reign of the Fengtian warlords from 1912 till 1931, numerous privately owned railway companies were formed. Some of the railway investment in the late 1930s was financed by the China Development Finance Corporation associated with businessman and statesman T. V. Soong. After the Japanese staged the Mukden Incident on 18 September 1931 as a pretext for invading Manchuria and the subsequent establishment of a puppet state called "Manchukuo", private railways were nationalised and merged to form the Manchukuo National Railway (MNR). In 1935, the Japanese bought the northern portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway from the Soviet Union and merged it into the MNR. In addition to the MNR and SMR, several other railway companies were established in the Japanese-occupied parts of China, including the North China Transportation Company, the Central China Railway, and the East Manchuria Railway. In 1945, just after the Second Sino-Japanese War, there were 27,000 km (17,000 mi) of rail, of which nearly half - 13,000 km (8,100 mi) - was located in Manchuria. Rail Transport in China People's Republic of China (1949+) After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the new government under Mao Zedong invested heavily in the railway network. From the 1950s to the 70s, lines, especially those in western China, were expanded. One example is the 1900 km railway from Lanzhou to Ürümqi, which was built between 1952 and 1962. In Southwestern China, where difficult terrain prevails, several mountain railways were constructed, such as the Baoji-Chengdu railway, built in the 1950s, and the Chengkun railway, built in the 1970s. The railway to Tibet, one of the highest in the world, was finally completed and opened to the public in 2006. Today, every province-level entity of China, with the exception of Macau, is connected to the railway network. Not only has the Chinese railway network expanded in size since 1949, but it has also seen great technological advances. Before the 1980s, most of the railways were powered by steam. China's first diesel locomotive, the Dongfeng, was introduced in 1958 and their first production model diesel, the DF4, was introduced in 1969. However, the early dieselization efforts were slowed by problems with the early DF4s and steam locomotive production continued into the late 1980s. During the 1980s and 90s, diesel and electric locomotives replaced the steam engines on main lines. However, steam locomotives didn't retire from some provincial railways until the 21st century. In December 2005, the world's last regular revenue mainline steam train finished its journey on the Jitong railway, marking the end of the steam era. Nevertheless, there are still some steam locomotives used in the industrial railways in China. From 1990 to 2001, on average some 1,092 km of new railways, 837 km of multiple-track, and 962 km of electrified railways were opened to traffic annually, 2.4-fold, 1.7-fold and 1.8-fold increases respectively over the previous 10 years. At the end of 2004, railways in operation reached 74,200 km, including 24,100 km of multiple track and 18,900 km of electrified railways. Since 1997, train speed has been raised significantly six times. The top speed of express trains increased from 120 km to 200 km per hour, and passenger trains can reach maximum speed of 350 km per hour on some sections of the arterial railways. In March 2013, the Ministry of Railways was dissolved and its safety and regulation duties were taken up by the Ministry of Transport, inspection duties by the State Railway Administration and construction and management by the China Railway Corporation (CR). In 2020, China Railway announced plans to expand the railway network by 33% or about 95,000 kilometres (59,000 mi), aiming to connect all cities with a population of over 200,000 by rail, and all with a population of over 500,000 by high-speed rail before 2035. As of July 2020, 95% of cities over 1 million is already connected by high-speed rail. Rail Transport in China Railway Administration Railways in China are defined into three main legal categories: national railways, local railways and designated railways. National railways are managed by the State Council of the national government and account for the bulk of railways in China. Local railways, which are operated by provincial or municipal governments, totaled a mere 40,000 km in 2013, less than 4% of the national total. Designated railways are operated by enterprises such as mines and steel mills. Since the 1980s, the national and local governments have jointly funded railway construction, sometimes using private capital. Joint stock railways constituted about 32% of the national network in 2013. The Luoding Railway in Guangdong province, built as a joint-stock railway with investments from the local and national governments in 2001, was gradually privatized and is one of the few privately owned passenger railways. For over fifty years, except for a brief interlude during the Cultural Revolution, all national railways were operated and regulated by the Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China. In March 2013, the State Council broke up the Railway Ministry into the National Railway Administration to oversee railway regulation and the China Railway Corporation, a state-owned company, to operate the national railways. The National Railway Administration is a sub-ministerial bureau assigned to the Ministry of Transport. The China Railway Corporation is a ministerial-level state company under the State Council. The last railway minister, Sheng Guangzu, became the general manager of the China Railway Corp. He outranks Lu Dongfu, the chief of the National Administration of Railways, who had previously been a deputy railway minister. Rail Transport in China Railway Bureaus and Management The China Railway Corporation assumed most of the assets of the Ministry of Railways and continues to manage the railways at three levels-the national level, the bureau or subsidiary company level, and the station level. Below are the 18 rail bureaus of the China Rail Corporation and the number of passenger stations each bureau managed in 2013. The National Railway Administration has seven oversight bureaus, based in Shenyang, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Xian and Lanzhou, to oversee these China Railway bureaus.
In 2013, railway transport generated ¥605 billion in revenues, an increase of 14.1% from the year before. To meet growing demand for rail service, the state is making large investments in rolling stock and infrastructure. In 2013, investments in rail totaled ¥808.8 billion, of which ¥662.3 billion on rail infrastructure, and ¥146.5 billion on rolling stock. Rail Transport in China Employment The railways employed 2,184,400 workers in 2013, an increase of 139,000 from the year before. Worker output averaged Y482,600 per person. Rail Transport in China Energy Use In 2014, the railways consumed 16.526 million tonnes of coal equivalent of energy, a decrease of 4.6% or 801,000 tonnes from 2013. It took 4.51 tonnes of coal equivalent to transport one million tonne-km of freight. China's Operational Statistics Detail Major Operators: China State Railway Group Company, Limited Ridership: 3.660 billion passenger trips Passenger km: 1,470.66 billion passenger-kilometres Freight: 4.389 billion tonnes China System Length Total: 146,000 km (91,000 mi)[a] Double Track: 83,000 km (52,000 mi) Electrified: 100,000 km (62,000 mi) High-Speed: 35,000 km (22,000 mi) China Track Gauge China Rail Transport Main Track: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1/2 in) China Rail Transport High-Speed Track: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1/2 in) 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1/2 in) standard gauge 79,685 kilometres (49,514 mi) (1998) 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3/8 in) metre gauge 466 kilometres (290 mi) 750 mm (2 ft 5+1/2 in) 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) (1998 est.) China's Track Features China Rail Transport Number of Tunnels: 16,084 (2019) China Rail Transport Tunnel Length: 18,041 kilometres (11,210 mi) (2019) China Rail Transport Longest Tunnel: Songshanhu Tunnel 38.813 kilometres (24.117 mi) China Rail Transport Number of Bridges: 47,524 (2008) China Rail Transport Longest Bridge: Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge 164.8 kilometres (102.4 mi) China Rail Transport Number of Train Stations: 5,470 (2008) China Rail Transport Highest Elevation: 5,072 metres (16,640 ft) at Tanggula Pass Notes [a] ^ There is a significant discrepancy in the total length of China's railways reported by China Statistical Yearbook (120,970 km (75,170 mi) at year end 2015) and the CIA Factbook (191,270 km (118,850 mi) in 2014). The CIA Factbook figure is based on "the total length of the railway network and of its component parts." The Statistical Yearbook figure includes "the total length of the trunk line for passenger and freight transportation in full operation or temporary operation" and measures the actual route distance between the midpoints of railway stations. Any double-tracked route or route with a return track of shorter distance is counted using the length of the original route. The length of any return tracks, other tracks within stations, maintenance and service tracks (such as those used to turn trains around), tracks of fork lines, special purpose lines and non-revenue connecting lines are excluded. The Statistical Yearbook provides cross-year and cross-regional breakdowns of railway length and its figures are presented in China railway articles. More on China Trains: Rail Transport in China More on China Trains: China Track Network - China Train Track Length More on China Trains: China Mainline Corridors - Sixteen Major Rail Corridors More on China Trains: China Train Stations - Rail Transport in China Train Stations More on China Trains: Classes of Service - Rail Transport in China Classes of Service More on China Trains: Rail Transport in China International Links More on China Trains: At the beginning of the 21st century China had no high-speed railways More on China Trains: China High-Speed Railway ''Eight Vertical Lines and Eight Horizontal Lines'' | |||||
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