How China built the world’s largest bullet-train network

*Image credits: The Econimist

And there’s a lot more to come.

Jan 14th, 2017

“THESE are fields of hope,” says Gu Zhen’an, gesturing at a barren scene. He spent 25 years overseeing road-building crews in central China. But three years ago, when he finished paving a highway to a new high-speed railway station, he decided it was time to switch industries. The land still looks empty, served by first-rate infrastructure but home to few people and fewer businesses. Mr. Gu, however, sees things differently: he expects a city to sprout up around the train station. In anticipation, he has built an old-age home, with plans to expand it into a complex for 5,000 people.

To appreciate the extent of China’s high-speed rail ambitions, take Mr. Gu’s dreams and multiply them many times over. Less than a decade ago China had yet to connect any of its cities by bullet train. Today, it has 20,000km (12,500 miles) of high-speed rail lines, more than the rest of the world combined. It is planning to lay another 15,000km by 2025. Just as astonishing is urban growth alongside the tracks. At regular intervals—almost wherever there are stations, even if seemingly in the middle of nowhere—thickets of newly built offices and residential blocks rise from the ground.

Five years after the busiest bullet trains started running (the Beijing-Shanghai line opened in 2011), a tentative verdict is possible. In the densest parts of China, high-speed rail has been a boon: it is helping to create a deeply connected economy. But further inland, risks are mounting of excessive investment.

In China’s three big population centres—the areas around Beijing in the north, Shanghai in the east and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, in the south—life and work have started to follow the sinews of the high-speed rail system. Trains were previously too infrequent, too slow and too crowded to allow for daily commutes. Now, each of these three mega-cities is developing commuter corridors. Little wonder: house prices in satellite towns and cities tend to be much cheaper. In Kunshan, for example, homes cost about 70% less than in nearby Shanghai. But the bullet train between the two cities takes just 19 minutes and costs a mere 25 yuan ($3.60). And Kunshan is just one of many options for those seeking to escape Shanghai’s high costs. There are now about 75m people living within an hour of the city by high-speed rail.

*Article from: The Economist.

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