China building high speed rail for Indonesia, Iran and maybe Australia

China will build high speed rail in Iran

Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Saturday with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to help construct Iran’s high-speed train system as part of China’s “One Belt and One Road” initiative to build a modern “Silk Road.”

The two sides agreed to expand bilateral trade to $600 billion in the coming 10 years.

The amount of trade between Iran and China was about $52 billion in 2014 but dropped to $42 billion last year due to falls in oil prices and sanctions against Iran, the Iran State News Agency reported Friday.

The two countries also agreed to cooperate on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

China has started construction of Indonesia first high speed rail project

Indonesia’s first high-speed railway project, being built by China, has finally started to make tracks and a ground-breaking ceremony has been held in Jakarta.

The 150-kilometer railway will link the capital with Bandung in West Java. The route will serve four stations in its first phase, including Halim, Karawang, Walini and Tegalluar.

China was selected by the Indonesian government to build the nation’s first bullet rail link last year. The cost of the project is estimated at U.S.$5.5 billion, with 75 percent of financing from the China Development Bank.

China’s state railways company is pushing NSW Australia to redesign its $7 billion second Sydney Harbour rail crossing to accommodate a second deck for a high-speed rail line.

Patrick Yu, chief executive of Centurion Group, a developer which is China Rail’s local partner, said that it would cost only $250 million more to build one big 16-meter diameter tunnel with two decks instead of the current plan for two single-deck six metre tunnels to carry suburban trains for the new Sydney Metro.

He said that even though a high-speed rail line has not yet been approved it still made sense to build a bigger tunnel just in case. He said China would consider making up the difference in cost. “Another harbour rail tunnel alignment would be extremely difficult to secure and it would take 10 years. It would be a crying pity not to have future-proofed infrastructure.”

The China Rail consortium has been pushing for a $25 billion 150-kilometre high-speed rail line from Newcastle north to Campbelltown to the south-west