High speed rail from Hong Kong to Beijing by 2012 and other amazing facts about China’s high speed rail buildout

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click on the picture for a larger view of how Hong Kong will connect to China with high speed rail

The Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railways began operation this year, and the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is also expected to be operational by the end of 2011.

The high-speed rail from Shanghai to Hong Kong is expected to begin service by the end of 2012 or in early 2013. By then, the fastest direct train from Shanghai to Hong Kong will take only 6 hours. Right now, traveling from Shanghai station to Kowloon Station takes nearly 19 hours. The Hong Kong-Shanghai high-speed rail journey is approximately 1,300 kilometers in length. So a transfer to the Shanghai-Beijing line would allow transit between Hong Kong and Beijing in about 10 hours.

Some amazing facts about China’s build out of high speed rail :
* China now at 7400+ kilometers of high speed rail has more high speed rail than all of Europe
* China doubled its high speed rail with the completion and start of operation of new rail since May, 2010. China added nearly 4000 kilometers of high speed rail since May, 2010 which is more than the number 2 country France.
* China will nearly double its high speed rail by the end of 2012 to over 13,000 kilometers. This will put it at more high speed rail than the rest of the world has. Europe, Japan, Asia, etc…
* China is pushing to speed up high speed rail speed to 500 kph (312 mph)
* China high speed rail between Shanghai and Beijing will have 12 train cars with one leaving every 5 minutes. An estimated 220,000 passengers will use it every day
* By 2020, assuming budgets are met about $300 billion will have been spent to build 25,000 kilometers of high speed rail network that will span most of the country

Hong Kong high speed rail to China may be finished early. Trains will run at speeds of as high as 350 kilometers per hour (217 miles an hour) on the new line, which will form part of a 140-kilometer railway running to Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The line will save the Hong Kong public 40 million hours per year, generating an annual economic rate of return of 9 percent, according to a government paper.

China has started to develop high speed trains with a capability of reaching 500 kilometers per hour. (312.5 miles per hour)

China’s high-speed railway have reached up to 7,413 kilometers in operation and 10,000 kilometers under construction. 13,000 kilometers should be in operation by the end of 2012. At the end of 2012, China could have more operational high speed rail than the rest of the world combined.

Spain, France and Portugal and other Asian countries are building quite a bit. So China will likely around the level of all of Europe combined. Perhaps in 2020 about 40% China, 40% Europe and 20% rest of Asia and the Americas.

The Beijing to Shanghai high speed line will use 16-car trainset. The power of each trainset will be 20 MW, at capacity of about 1050 passengers, each passenger from Beijing and Shanghai consumes less than 80 kWh in average. The project is expected to cost 220.9 billion yuan (about $32 billion). An estimated 220,000 passengers are expected to use the trains each day, which is double the current capacity. During peak hours there should be a train every five minutes. 1060.6 km, or 80.5% of railway will be laid bridges.

A lot of China’s planned high speed build is expected to be completed by 2015.

FURTHER READING
52 page report of the Hong Kong high speed rail

My recent article about US high speed rail, and other information about China and world high speed rail

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