Terminal velocity: China tests world's longest high-speed rail line

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Published time: December 22, 2012 22:28
Edited time: December 23, 2012 02:28

A CRH380BL high-speed bullet train runs towards Beijing South Railway Station (Reuters/Jason Lee)

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China, Modernization, SciTech

China has set a new record by successfully testing the longest high-speed rail line in the world, capable of covering 700 kilometers in only two and a half hours.

More than 100 reporters had the chance to experience the top speed of over 300 km an hour on the northern segment of the 2,298 kilometer Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway line. Their 693 km test drive from Beijing to Zhengzhou took only two and a half hours to complete.

The entire route is expected to open on December 26 and is designed to reduce the travel time to about 8 hours from the current 20 plus hours by the existing lines. The railway has 35 stops and is designed to hit speeds of 350 km per hour.

More than 2,000 tickets were sold for the first Guangzhou-Beijing commercial journey. A second-class fare from Beijing to Guangzhou is 865 yuan ($138 dollars) while the cheapest plane seat costs only 25 yuan more.

The aerodynamic bullet train makes little noise and offers reclining seats and a stainless steel toilet with slightly more bathroom space than would usually be found on an airliner.

China's high-speed rail network was only established in 2007, by 2010 it already covered 8,358 kilometers of track. China aims to increase that number to 16,000 kilometers by 2020.

A train employee walks past a CRH (China Railway High-speed) Harmony 380BL bullet train (bottom) at Beijing South Railway Station (Reuters/Jason Lee)

Comments (19)

SC (unregistered) 27.12.2012 23:36

JJ (unregistered) wrote in #2
This is great now I can get my Chinese Food Delivery even Faster !
By the way these look like a copy of the French ones, but that's China they
are not good at inventing mostly they are good at copying.

JJ, wonder why you argued that China copied from France. All bullet trains look roughly alike for aerodynamic purposes - anyone who studies Physics would understand. Because French TGVs also look similar to Japanese Bullet Trains doesn't meant that they copied it from the Japanese. All developments such as these must have local expertise or indigenous input to succeed. SC

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Mark101 (unregistered) 24.12.2012 12:41

akram al obiedi (unregistered) wrote in #14
...now they build themselves but alot of accidents...You would not take a ride on that train even if you have life insurance...
This "Akram" guy is stupid!

In the 6 years of high-speed rail service in China, there was only 1 single accident. If you look at the statistics, they are much safer than both cars and planes!

For exapmle, as of October 2010, China ran more than 1,000 high-speed trains PER DAY, with a DAILY ridership of about 925,000!

If you multiply that by 365 (days), then multiply again by 6 (years). That is 2.2 million train rides with more than 2 billion passenger rides!

One single accident out of 2.2 million services! And a casualty of 40 out of 2 BILLION passenger rides! That is safer than anything America has today!

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AmericanTaxPayer (unregistered) 24.12.2012 02:01

Good job China. I wish that more of our corrupt leaders had your courage and your vision.

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