China’s huge high speed rail project

Last week, Fortune Magazine published a most interesting article on the Chinese high speed rail project. By 2020 over 25,000 km (16,000 miles) of new tracks will be built for a cost of $300 billion (210 billion €).

The People’s Republic government launches this huge project to answer to it’s citizens’ needs of alternative to cars and fast transportation, create million of jobs and spur economic growth.

This takes place as the United States want to create ten corridors of high speed rail. However, the allocated means – a mere eight billion dollars – won’t complete this project.

This occurs as we have seen that an organization – the US High Speed Rail Network – is pushing  the United States to push for more high speed rail in order to create 17,000 miles of tracks by 2030. This project is similar in size and scope to the Chinese one…

As there is a peaceful arms race over cleantech and renewable energies could there be one over high speed rail ? Could China, India, the United States and the European Union (as well as other nations) compete in this domain ?

The advantages of such projects are numerous :

• Creation of million jobs ;
• Economic growth ;
• A sustainable project creating an alternative to cars and planes ;
• Low carbon, fast and reliable way to go from a city center to another.

For more about the Chinese project and how it could transform the country, please check out the facts and figures provided by Fortune Magazine.