CHINA | Railways

[hkskyline]

Bombardier wins Chinese rail deal
Deal increases company's global profile as nation readies for 2008 Olympic Games
20 March 2006
The Globe and Mail

BEIJING -- Bombardier Inc. has won a $68-million (U.S.) contract to provide railway cars for a rapid-transit link between Beijing and its international airport in time for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The contract is important for Bombardier, since it guarantees another high-visibility Olympic project for the company at a time when it is fighting for a bigger slice of the fast-growing China market.

Last year, the Montreal-based company won a separate $89-million contract to build an automated “people mover” train system at a new terminal of Beijing's international airport as it expands to handle Olympic visitors.

The latest contract, announced yesterday in Beijing, is for Bombardier to provide technology and equipment for 40 cars on a 27-kilometre railway link between the airport and the city's subway system. Bombardier will provide the design, engineering, propulsion systems and bogies for the cars, which will be assembled by a domestic company in China.

“This is very important because it confirms the leadership of Bombardier in China,” Andre Navarri, president of Bombardier Transportation, said in an interview yesterday.

“When a big city like Beijing wants a first-class technology on time for a big event, they go to Bombardier,” he said. “It confirms that we are regarded very highly in China.”

Mr. Navarri acknowledged, however, that Bombardier will face “quite tough” deadlines for the delivery of the 40 train cars. “We have to deliver the first train set for testing in August, 2007, and we have to deliver most of the trains before the Summer Olympics, which is only 28 months from now. So it's a tough schedule, but the customer is confident in us.”

He also predicted that the fleet of trains on the Beijing airport link “will probably increase” beyond the current fleet of 40 cars in the future. “This is only a start.”

Elsewhere in the Chinese market, Bombardier got a boost this month when China announced it will use conventional wheel technology, rather than German magnetic levitation technology, for a planned high-speed railway between Shanghai and Beijing, the two biggest cities in the country.

The German technology is already in use for a 31-kilometre Shanghai airport link, and it will be used for a new 200-kilometre train line between Shanghai and the booming city of Hangzhou. But the maglev technology has been rejected for the Beijing-Shanghai route, creating an opportunity for Bombardier.

“There will be a competition and we will be part of the competition,” Mr. Navarri said. “There will probably be several suppliers on this high-speed line.”

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line is part of a massive expansion of China's railway system, which is slated to add 5,400 kilometres of new high-speed lines in the next four years.

Mr. Navarri said Bombardier is also progressing smoothly on its $281-million contract to provide 361 rail cars for the country's controversial high-altitude railway to Tibet.

The railway has been denounced by human-rights activists as a potential death blow to Tibet's cultural survival.

“The first train has been tested in real conditions in cold weather in Tibet in February, to test the oxygen, for example, and it went quite well,” he said.

“The first train set has been delivered to the customer. The second train set is being tested now on the line, and the third train set will be delivered for testing this week.”

The railway line to Tibet, which will climb in some parts to as high as 5,000 metres, is likely to begin operations around September, he said.

[hkskyline]

A new train set - China
25 March 2006
The Economist

National pride is spurring development of China's railways

IN THE rush to modernise its transport infrastructure, China has built scores of glossy airports and an extensive road network along its eastern seaboard. Far less attention and money has been lavished on the country's antiquated and overburdened railways, which carry a high proportion of freight and passengers.

That is changing at last. On the fringes of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, earlier this month, Liu Zhijun, the minister for railways, announced approval for two bold and long-planned high-speed rail lines. The larger, first mooted as long ago as 1994, is a 1,320km (820 mile) link between Shanghai and Beijing. With trains along it expected to reach top speeds of 350km an hour, it should cut the travel time between the mainland's two most important cities from 13 hours to less than five—although at an eye-watering expense of some 200 billion yuan ($25 billion). The other project is a 175km connection between Shanghai and nearby Hangzhou, another big city in the booming Yangtze River Delta, that will allow speeds of up to 450km per hour and cost around 35 billion yuan.

These two lines are showpieces in a hugely ambitious official scheme to construct some 5,400km of high-speed rail track by the end of the decade, at a cost of more than 1 trillion yuan. This itself is but a part of China's plan to build and refurbish about 40,000km of its railways by 2010 in an effort to ease bottlenecks in the transport of everything from coal to soyabeans to people.

The Chinese government, however, has a second, equally important goal in mind: using the railways to display China's technological prowess in a way that it has failed to do—so far, at least—in building cars and aircraft. After two decades of deliberately importing foreign expertise in order to speed economic development, China is starting to place more emphasis on (and put more resources behind) homegrown technology. A space flight by a Chinese astronaut in 2003, followed by a second manned space mission last October are the most visible signs of this new determination to catch up with western science and engineering in everything from software and consumer electronics to semiconductors and giant engineering projects. Following an official announcement this month that China planned to build its own jumbo jets, Mr Liu said that the new high-speed rail lines will not use any foreign technology.

That is a blow for the international engineering firms that have lobbied hard to sell their high-speed trains to China, including Japan's shinkansen, Alstom's French TGV and the maglev (magnetic levitation) train offered by Siemens and ThyssenKrupp of Germany. Siemens is behind the 30km maglev train service that has been running between Shanghai's Pudong airport and the city since 2002. And it may win some more work since the Shanghai-Hangzhou track will also be based on maglev technology, although principally one developed by Chinese engineers over the past few years. For the other foreign companies, prospects look less promising. The longer link to Beijing will be built with different, domestically-developed technology. And, as so often in China, it will be hard to establish whether foreigners' intellectual-property rights have been infringed along the way. As Mr Liu delicately put it to the Chinese media: “Our technology is a re-innovation on the basis of assimilating advanced technologies of foreign countries.”

At a time when economic nationalism is rising around the world, China's unwillingness to remain in thrall to foreign technology is understandable. Whether it yet has the skills to develop and commercialise its own technology in a field as complex as modern train systems is another matter. None of an earlier generation of passenger jets, today's mainland cars and the Shanghai airport maglev are financial successes. Nor will either of the new high-speed links be ready for the 2008 Olympics. While China may be getting better at running trains, they are not yet running quite on time.

[hkskyline]

Guangzhou to build 9 subways
30 March 2006
Xinhua's China Economic Information Service

GUANGZHOU, March 30 (CEIS) – Guangzhou, the capital city of China’s southern Guangdong Province, plans to build nine subways with a total length of 255 km in the country’s 11th Five-Year Program period (2006-2010).

The city now has its total subway length of 59.2 km.

With the nine new subways built by 2010, subways will take over half of Guangzhou’s public passenger transport capacity, said Lu Guanglin, general manager of the Guangzhou Subway Corp.

According to Lu, Guangzhou will put in no less than 5 billion yuan every year in subway construction.

[hkskyline]

Shanghai to get another four metro lines by 2010
6 April 2006
South China Morning Post

Shanghai plans to finish four new metro lines by 2010 to link up with the World Expo site and meet demand from the city's rapidly expanding suburbs, the government and state media said yesterday.

The city will host the world's fair in 2010 and the local government is using the event to improve Shanghai's infrastructure.

State-owned Shanghai Shentong Metro signed an agreement with 11 mainland commercial banks on Tuesday for a 30 billion yuan loan to help fund the new lines, the government said.

Shanghai's development of its metro system had slowed after the launch of central government policies to rein in the economy in 2004. But Beijing recently approved a high-speed railway link between Shanghai and Hangzhou using maglev technology, as well as another rail link between Shanghai and Beijing.

Shanghai's new metro lines - numbered six through to nine - will cover 120km with 89 stops. Construction will start this year.

Line No6 will pass through several large residential areas in Pudong near the World Expo site. Lines 7 and 8 will carry passengers directly into the site, while No9 will extend to a new town and a university complex in a southwestern suburb.

According to a city government blueprint, Shanghai will have 13 metro lines with a total length of 510km by 2012. Five, mainly covering the inner city area, have already been completed.

A Shanghai government policy white paper says officials plan to make intra-city railways the backbone of the public transport system, accounting for 60 per cent of journeys by 2020. The local government needs to develop links between the city centre and the suburbs, as it tries to relocate more residents to outlying areas.

[hkth]

Xinhua news:
High-speed rail link to change regional economic structure

[hkskyline]

中國建四戰略鐵道 全面與世界「接軌」
2006-04-10




　【本報北京新聞中心記者海巖9日電】國務院西部開發辦有關官員近日表示，在「十一五」乃至更長時期，中國謀劃在西南、西北、東北以及雲南地區建設四條新的陸路國際性戰略大通道。其中在西南部醞釀建設的南亞陸路大通道，由青藏鐵路繼續向南延伸經亞東出境，與印度鐵路網連接，形成一條通向南亞次大陸的戰略通道。

　謀劃中的另外3條陸路大通道是：在雲南，建設連接雲南與東南亞、南亞的中緬印國際大通道；在東北地區東部，修建「琿春－東寧」鐵路以及春化出境鐵路與俄羅斯鐵路接軌；在西北地區，架設新疆與俄羅斯陸路大通道。

更好利用國內外資源

　國務院西部開發辦綜合規劃組處長胡長順認為，由於中國與世界經濟的相互聯繫和影響日益深刻，建設陸路新的國際性戰略大通道，可以更好的利用國內國際兩個市場、兩種資源，保障國家經濟社會的安全，解決中國與周邊國家在能源、礦產資源等方面擴大境外合作的運輸大通道問題，實施共贏的開放戰略。

　西藏地處中國西南邊陲，與印度、不丹、尼泊爾等多個國家接壤，邊境線長達4,000多公里，高原上第一條鐵路——青藏鐵路將在今年7月1日全線試運營。早在青藏鐵路竣工之前，海外就猜測「拉薩不會成為青藏鐵路的終點站」，希望能夠繼續延伸，令周邊國家從中獲益。去年以來，尼泊爾國王賈南德拉在幾次國際會議期間，都向中國和印度領導人表示，希望青藏鐵路能夠鋪到尼泊爾境內，最終與印度、孟加拉國等鐵路網連接，成為其兩大鄰國——中國和印度之間的交通運輸紐帶和中轉站。

構建南亞陸路大通道

　胡長順認為，考慮到西藏與周邊國家關係的進一步穩定和經濟社會發展需要，建設通往南亞國家的陸路大通道至關重要，將青藏鐵路一直向南延伸到日喀則，再延伸經過亞東出境，今後與印度鐵路網連接，構建南亞陸路大通道，未來它將成為中國通往南亞乃至南亞國家出印度洋走向世界的一條南亞大動脈。

[hkth]

Xinhua news:
Tibet's first railway to start unmanned operation next month

[hkskyline]

Hong Kong MTR Corp. signs agreement to build, operate new Beijing rail line
13 April 2006

HONG KONG (AP) - Hong Kong railway operator MTR Corp. said Thursday it signed an agreement to build and operate a new Beijing rail line for an investment of 735 million yuan (US$91.7 million; euro75.6 million).

The total investment for the project, Beijing Metro Line 4, will be about 15.3 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion; euro1.6 billion), the Hong Kong company said in a statement.

Beijing's municipal government will provide 10.7 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion; euro1.1 billion) of the total investment, it said.

The 29-kilometer (18-mile) rail line will run across the center of Beijing.

The project will be carried out through a joint venture, Beijing MTR Corp. Ltd., jointly held by MTR Corp., Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co. and state-owned Beijing Capital Group.

MTR Corp. and Beijing Capital Group will each hold 49 percent of the project. The remaining 2 percent will be held by Beijing Infrastructure, the statement said.

MTR Corp., which operates Hong Kong's subway, has also signed an agreement to build and operate a railway in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

[hkskyline]

Railway transport capacity sees double-figure growth
19 April 2006
China Daily

The Chinese Ministry of Railways announced on Tuesday that China's railway transport capacity has seen a double-figure growth over the last two years thanks to faster trains.

The capacity increased by 18.5 percent and the freight transport capacity increased by 15 percent over the last two years after the speed of trains was raised on April 18, 2004, said the ministry.

The speed raises served to link China's major economic circles and greatly boosted China's rapid economic growth, said an official with the ministry.

China put into service 19 pairs of express trains linking major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xi'an, increased the speed of trains to above 160 km per hour and opened more express freight trains.

According to the ministry, China's railways completed 1.154 billion passenger journeys last year, 18.7 percent more than before the speed was raised, and transported a total of 2.686 billion tons of cargo.

China has 22,090 kilometers of railways which can allow trains to run at a speed above 120 km per hour, 14,025 kilometers of railways above 160 km per hour and 5,371 kilometers above 200 km per hour.

The ministry said these extended high-speed railways lines have increased the possibility for China to launch more strategic railway speed raises in the coming years.

[hkskyline]

Rare Chinese steam train serves remote mountain villages and rail enthusiasts
30 May 2006

SHIBANXI, China (AP) - In the remote mountains of southern China, a worker busily shovels coal into a workhorse from another era -- a narrow gauge steam train that makes four or five runs a day ferrying people and livestock.

The Shibanxi passenger train has been operating since 1958 and is one of a handful of steam trains left in the world. Despite frequent rumors that it's headed for retirement, it keeps chugging though the lush green mountains of Sichuan province.

Blanketed much of the year by clouds and soft drizzle, the area is inaccessible by car. Villagers rely on the seven-car train to get to work, to transport pigs and vegetables to market, to carry children to school.

Foreign train buffs are also frequent passengers on the 19-kilometer (12-mile) run.

Wooden benches line the cars -- except for the last one, which has a pen for livestock. Sliding metal windows let in air and light or keep out the coal smoke when the train blasts through long tunnels.

"We need this train," says Xu Xia, a villager who lives near the station in Shixi, the first stop on the eight-stop rail line. "It's impossible to imagine life here without it."

The narrow tracks also serve as a path for villagers through the thick vegetation and steep mountain slopes, forcing the engineer to punctuate the trip with frequent earsplitting peals of the horn.

A ride costs local people 3 yuan (37 US cents; 29 euro cents). Tourists pay 15 yuan (US$1.87;euro1.47).

The rail line is popular among steam train enthusiasts who flock to Shibanxi from the United States, Europe and Japan.

[hkskyline]

China's altiplano trains ready to climb onto "Roof of the world"
14 June 2006
Xinhua's China Economic Information Service

BEIJING, June 14 (CEIS) -- A total of 169 China-made express trains are ready to run along the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest railtrack due to begin trial operation on July 1.

The trains are specifically designed to operate on the altiplano railway of which 84 percent is 4,000 meters above sea level.

An engineer with manufacturer CSR Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock told Xinhua that the trains mark a new leap forward for China's railway equipment development.

The design of the carriages is unmistakably Tibetan, from the patterned carpets to the window curtains. All the Chinese words that appear on the electronic screen in each railway car are translated into both English and Tibetan.

Two oxygen systems have been installed on the train.

One is a "dispersion-mode" oxygen supply system, with oxygen spreading to the air in the railway car through the air-conditioning system. The other system, like that of an airplane, offers each passenger individual access to oxygen, and passengers can use a pipe to suck up more oxygen if needed.

All railway cars are equipped with double-layer glass which is covered with anti-ultraviolet radiation film.

With 1,142 kilometers section of the railway between Golmud and Lhasa running along Kunlun Mountain and Tanggula Mountain, 960 kilometers of the railway will be above 4,000 meters, with the highest point at 5,072 meters, at least 200 meters higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was formerly the world's most elevated track.

To protect the natural environment along the railway, special sewage collection devices have been installed. All the waste is disposed of at the terminus.

A special rubbish compressor has also been installed in each car to avoid litter being strewn along the railway.

The train is also equipped with disabled toilets.

The 25T series train is designed for a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, and it has reached 120 kilometers per hour during the test runs in previous months. The engineer said even when running through the highest point on the Tanggula Mountain, the speed of the train can reach 80 kilometers per hour.

Sources with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company said last month that the first four scheduled trains to Tibet by the Qinghai-Tibet railway will start, on July 1, from Beijing, Chengdu, Xining, and Shanghai (Guangzhou), respectively.

The railway is the first to connect the Tibet Autonomous Region with other parts of China. It is one of China's key projects in the west, which demonstrates the Chinese government's determination to bring prosperity to the Tibetan people and promote economic development of the vast western areas in China.

[hkskyline]

Thursday June 22, 12:31 PM
Beijing subway builders never got dollar-a-day salary

BEIJING (AFP) - Migrants from rural China worked for a year building Beijing's new subway line -- a signature project for the Olympics -- for just over one dollar a day but were never paid.

A Beijing court this week ordered a construction company to pay the 260 workers from eastern Shandong province their year's wages worth a total 900,000 yuan (112,500 dollars), the China Daily newspaper reported.

The salaries equate to 1.21 dollars a day for each worker but that was still too much for the government's Beijing Urban Construction Group, which defaulted on its payments to another firm it had subcontracted to employ the workers.

"Our boss told us that the Beijing Urban Construction Group did not pay him first," the plaintiffs told the court, according to the China Daily.

The court ruled on Tuesday that the subcontracting firm must pay the workers their salaries but said the city government's construction company was also to blame, according to the China Daily.

"The Beijing Urban Construction Group should also shoulder legal resonsibilities," the court judgment said.

The court was told the workers had been brought in from Shandong in June last year to help build the No. 5 Metro Line, which will run north-south under the city, passing the 2008 Olympic Village.

China is ploughing 40 billion dollars into Beijing's infrastructure ahead of the Olympics, with some of the money going into transport such as new subway lines and the airport.

Exploitation of workers is a recurring theme in China's economic "miracle", covering most industries from urban construction to the coal mines and the sweat shops that produce ultra-cheap goods for international markets.

[hkskyline]

Collapse at Beijing subway construction site kills 2 workers
28 June 2006

BEIJING (AP) - A section of a Beijing subway tunnel that was under construction collapsed, killing two workers, a news report said Wednesday.

Work on the line on the northern side of Beijing was suspended following the accident early Tuesday, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

The two workers were buried when the tunnel walls collapsed, and their bodies were found four hours later, the paper said.

Calls Wednesday to Beijing's work-safety administration were referred to the city government's foreign affairs office, who said they could not immediately respond.

Beijing is building four new subway lines in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

[hkth]

Xinhua news:
Trials begin for electric train from Shanghai to Nanjing

[hkskyline]

Guangshen to borrow $3.2b for railway line
18 July 2006
South China Morning Post

Guangshen Railway, which runs through-trains between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, is seeking $3.23 billion in debt to fund expansion.

The Hong Kong-listed company yesterday said its plan to build a fourth railway line, estimated to cost $4.6 billion, had been approved by its parent, Guangzhou Railway.

The company said it would fund 70 per cent of the cost by "external means of financing", and the rest by internal resources.

Guangshen had total liabilities of about two billion yuan at the end of last year.

It had also failed to sell 700 million A shares despite winning shareholders' approval in 2002 because of the Sars outbreak.

Sources said Guangshen was planning to raise about $10 billion by selling A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the last quarter of this year, a move that was delayed by a government ban on all new listings last year.

The fourth Guangzhou-Shenzhen line will run through Xintang and Pingshu and connect to major lines including that between Beijing and Guangzhou and the Kowloon-Canton Railway.

To help build that line, Guangshen has signed agreements, including those for surveying and design services, construction works supervision, technical services and environmental assessment services, with several independent firms.

Guangshen's revenue was 3.28 billion yuan last year, up 7.9 per cent from 2004, while net profit grew 8.1 per cent to 613.4 million yuan.

Revenue from passenger transportation service was 2.51 billion yuan last year or 76.6 per cent of the total.

Shares of Guangshen fell 1.73 per cent yesterday to $2.825.

[hkskyline]

Nanjing to Build Subway of 52km by 2010

NANJING, July 17, SinoCast -- Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, will finish rail transit of 51.925 kilometers, including the first phase and the eastern extension projects of the No. 2 subway as well as the southern extension project of the No. 1 subway, during the eleventh Five-Year Plan period.

At the same time, the eastern city plans to construct the western extension project of the No. 2 subway.

The No. 2 subway, with a length of over 25 kilometers, is planned to have a total investment of CNY 10.54 billion. The first phase has been started and will be put into trial operation in 2009.

The southern extension project of the No. 1 subway, which is 18 kilometers long and have an investment of CNY 6.93 billion, is planned to be openned for traffic in 2010.

The eastern extension project of the No. 2 subway, which is over 9 kilometers long and is invested in CNY 2.226 billion, will be started at the end of the coming year and be put into trial operation in 2010.

And the western extension project of the No. 2 subway, which is 14.82 kilometers long and has an investment of CNY 5.7 billion, will be started in 2008 and come into operation in 2012.

By the time when all of these lines are commissioned, the operating profits will be more than CNY 500 million, realizing break-even operation.

[z0rg]

Jiangsu to build 10 railways in 5 years

Winny Wang
2006-07-21
NANJING will become the transport hub in Jiangsu Province as plans have been established to build 10 railways in five years in the province, most of which will be connected by the Nanjing railway station, including the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed railway, Modern Express reported today.

It will only take 4 hours to travel from Nanjing to Beijing by train after the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed railway is completed by 2010.

From Nanjing to other nearby cities, like Hefei, Hangzhou and Shanghai, the trip will take about 1 hour.

Another railway will be built to connect the Nanjing Railway Station and the Nanjing South Railway Station.

Nanjing South Railway Station will be six times as big as the current Nanjing Railway Station, and it is expected to host 80 percent of all passengers.

The 10 new railways are:

*Shanghai-Beijing high-speed railway
Length: 1,318 kilometers
Speed: 350 km/h

*Shanghai-Nanjing railway.
Length: 296 kilometers
Speed: 250 km/h

*Nanjing-Hangzhou railway
Length: 280 kilometers
Speed: 200 km/h

*Nanjing-Wuhu railway.
Length: 263 kilometers
Speed: 200 km/h

*Nanjing-Hefei railway
Length: 166 kilometers
Speed: 200 km/h

*Nantong-Shanghai railway
Length: 133 kilometers
Speed: 200 km/h

*Suzhou-Huai'an railway
Length: 192 kilometers
Speed: 160 km/h

*Lianyungang-Funing railway
Length: 276 kilometers
Speed: 160 km/h

*Huai'an-Zhenjiang railway
Length: 173 kilometers
Speed: 160 km/h

*Zhenjiang-Nanxiang railway
Length: 227 kilometers
Speed: 160 km/h

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/200...in_5_years.htm

[hkskyline]

China building 27-billion-dollar train line from Beijing to Shenzhen

BEIJING, Aug 3, 2006 (AFP) - China is building a 27-billion-dollar train line from Beijing to the southern economic hub of Shenzhen and foreign investors will be invited to join the project, state press reported Thursday.

The new 2,300-kilometer (1,420-mile) railway will cut travel time between the capital and Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, from 24 hours to 10, the China Daily said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission.

The track will be designed to allow trains to travel at speeds of at least 200 kilometers an hour, more than twice as fast as the current line, it said.

Work on some sections of the railway has already begun and the entire project is expected to be completed by 2010.

The newspaper, citing government officials, said the entire project was expected to cost around 220 billion yuan (27.5 billion dollars), with foreign investment welcomed.

"We encourage investors from home and abroad and we think it will be a profitable railway," a railways ministry official surnamed Huang said in the report.

The total investment will be recovered within six years of services on the line starting, Huang said.

Construction of a section of the line between Wuhan, the capital of China's central Hubei province, and Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province in which Shenzhen also lies, began in 2004.

However the National Development and Reform Commission, the government's main economic planning body, only released the blueprint for the entire project on Wednesday, the China Daily said.

The commission said the new railway would be solely for passengers, leaving the old track to carry cargo.

The project is separate from another multi-billion-dollar railway to be built between Beijing and Shanghai, which is also expected to be completed by 2010 and be open to foreign investment.

The Beijing-Shanghai line is epected to cut travel time between China's two most important cities from around 13 hours to five, with the trains expected to reach speeds of 350 kilometers an hour.

The investment costs for that project have not been announced although reports have suggested as much as 25 billion dollars will be ploughed into it.

China announced last year an ambitious plan to spend 250 billion dollars by 2020 to renovate and expand the nation's rail network, one of the largest in the world.

[hkskyline]

China planning major new coal railway

BEIJING, Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) - China is planning a 740-kilometer (460-mile) railway line to better link its impoverished, but coal-rich north to more prosperous and energy-hungry provinces further south, state media said Tuesday.

The coal rail, budgeted at 23 billion yuan (2.9 billion dollars), will start at Baotou, a major city in Inner Mongolia, a region known for its vast coal resources, the Shanghai Securities News reported.

Its southern terminus will be at Tangshan harbor, around 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of Beijing, where the coal will be loaded onto ships and transported to the nation's energy-guzzling south, according to the paper.

The idea of a new coal railway to Inner Mongolia was raised in a research report jointly issued by power companies Huaneng and Datang International Power, coal producer Shenhua, and the State Development and Investment Corp.

The newspaper report did not give a timeframe for when the railway would be built.

Despite its rapidly modernizing economy, China is still heavily dependent on coal, relying on it for about two thirds of its energy consumption.

[moazzam]

China really has very impressive trains.....
What is maximum speed of china star?