4150. China's High-Speed Rail

 

High-Speed Rail: Wuhan is a major hub in China's extensive high-speed rail network. Here are some travel times from major cities:

• Beijing - 4 hours
• Shanghai - 5 hours
• Changsha - 1.5 hours
• Guiyang - 5 hours
• Hong Kong - 5 hours

These speedy connections make Wuhan an excellent stop on any China itinerary. The trains are comfortable, punctual, and offer a great view of the Chinese countryside. 

 

18 Jun 2025:
An article by Guancha.cn said on 5 Jun 2025 that the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway saw a 2.31% year-on-year decline in its total passenger  number to 52 million people last year. The company still managed to boost its net profit by 10.6% to 12.77 billion yuan (US$1.78 billion) in 2024 by sharing its network with other train operators.

China' high-speed railway network was 45,000 km at the end of 2023 but only 2,300 km or 6% of the total, could make a profit.Of all 16 high-speed railway lines, only 6in coastal cities are profitable. They include the Beijing-shanghai, Beijing-Tianjin, Shanghai-Hangzhou, Ningbo_Hangahou and Guangzhou-Shenzen lines.

It said the most profitable Beijing-Shanghai line will have to spend 20 years recovering its initial investment of 220.9 billion yuan.

GROWING DEBT
Last year, the National Railway Administration said China's train passengers surged 11% year-on-year to 4.09 billion yuan in 2024.

China Railway's total revenue grew 3.1% to 1.28 trillion yuan while net profit surged 17.6% to 3.88 billion yuan. These figures included the company's old railway and high-speed railway segments. There were very few passengers on weekdays, but the maintenance costs stood high.

Last September, the government urged the train operator to reschedule its trains' timetables, attract private investment and improve efficiency with new technologies.

Lowering train frequency and fares in remote ares in January this year was not enough to boost CR's profitability.

Millions of migrant workers went home during the Spring Festival in late January taking the "green-skinned trains", leaving the high-speed railway trains undertutiliszed. 

It takes 4.5 hours to travel from Zhengzhou to Wuhan on ordinary trains for 70 to 90 yuan (one to 2 days' salary) compared to 270 yuan  and less than 2 hours on high-speed trains. 

On Jun 15, CR increased fares by up to 20% for its profitable lines to subsidize unprofitable ones.

GHOST STATIONS

Many "ghost stations" are in inland provinces such as Anhui and Yunnan or coastal provinces such as Liaoning and Jiangsu.

In 2008, many local governments got new funding to accelerate their high-speed railway projects, but many stations were built in remote and inconvenient places without considering the profitability of their facilities. The local government wanted to achieve political achievements.

The maximum fare of the Beijing-Shanghai line is 553 yuan, which is lower that that of the Tokyo-Osaka line of 1,200 yuan. 

Someone suggested CR increase train fares, encourage local govt to bear more construction costs, cut number of high-speed railway stations from 1,300 to 960, improve governance and reduce costs. Easier said than done.  

Since 2010, CR has closed 20 high-speed railway stations due to insufficient passenger traffic.

He said the public should focus on the high-speed network's social value rather than commercial values.

 

REF: Asia Times Stories REF: Asia Times Stories

UPDATE:
https://2010vets.blogspot.com/2025/06/chinas-high-speed-rail.html