BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) — China’s fast-evolving high-speed rail expertise shouldn’t be solely reshaping home mobility, but additionally enjoying an more and more important function in enhancing world connectivity and driving infrastructure improvement, specialists stated on the twelfth World Congress on High-Speed Rail.
The occasion, held from Tuesday to Friday in Beijing and co-hosted by China State Railway Group and the International Union of Railways (UIC), drew greater than 2,000 individuals from over 60 international locations, areas and worldwide organizations.
“In less than two decades, China has created the largest and most advanced high-speed rail system in the world, reshaping mobility, the economy and regional development,” stated Alan Beroud, chairman of the UIC, throughout his keynote speech on the opening ceremony.
China’s achievement is extra outstanding on condition that at first of this century, the nation had no high-speed railways. Back then, passengers relied on sluggish and sometimes overcrowded trains, making cross-country journeys time-consuming and exhausting.
Today, the nation operates about 48,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, greater than twice the size of all different international locations’ networks mixed. The system hyperlinks 97 p.c of cities with populations of 500,000 or extra.
Guided by an innovation-driven technique, China has emerged as a worldwide front-runner within the sector. The nation has spearheaded the event of all 13 system-level worldwide requirements for high-speed rail set by the UIC. Its flagship fashions, such because the CR450 electrical a number of unit, the world’s quickest high-speed prepare with a check pace of 450 kilometers per hour, have redefined new world benchmarks for pace and security.
For many international locations, particularly these nonetheless growing their infrastructure, China’s story is greater than a feat of modernization — it serves as a sensible pathway to reaching broader improvement.
“Most countries experience the same starting point like China,” stated Ulan Kulov, deputy normal supervisor of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway Co. “We can go this way faster if we learn from China, because we don’t have to reinvent it, and we can use existing technologies and go fast forward.”
While main in improvement at dwelling, China can also be exporting its experience overseas, partnering with greater than 40 international locations and areas. From Asia to Europe and past, its high-speed rail initiatives are leaving a rising world footprint.
The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia, constructed fully with Chinese expertise and requirements, slashed journey time between the 2 cities from greater than three hours to simply 46 minutes. In Europe, the China-backed Hungary-Serbia Railway has minimize journey time between Budapest and Belgrade from eight hours to a few, benefiting greater than 11 million passengers since operation.
The China-Laos Railway stands as a key venture selling regional connectivity and commerce. As of May, the railway had transported greater than 52.7 million passengers, together with over 510,000 cross-border vacationers, and carried greater than 59.4 million tonnes of cargo, with cross-border shipments exceeding 13.7 million tonnes.
Daochinda Siharath, managing director of Lao National Railway Authority, stated the China-Laos Railway was the primary railway constructed to trendy technical requirements that Laos had operated. “The railway has directly and indirectly supported the socioeconomic development in Laos, and also boosted the income of people living along the route,” the official stated.
Beyond advancing infrastructure in growing nations, China’s high-speed rail can also be creating new alternatives for conventional railway gamers.
When attending a parallel exhibition on trendy railway expertise, Hitachi NICO Transmission Co., Ltd., a Japanese firm that entered the Chinese market in 1980, highlighted the significance of joint innovation.
“In the past 40-plus years, it was through our development in China that we seized unprecedented opportunities,” stated Matsui Shiro, president of the corporate. He famous that Japanese and Chinese firms are extremely complementary in areas similar to specialised parts, co-development, and built-in options.
“The Belt and Road Initiative has opened new doors for China-Japan joint ventures in third-party markets,” Matsui stated. “We see great prospects for effective partnerships in many areas.”