Fifth speed-up launched: Chinese Railways implemented its fifth national acceleration of long-distance passenger and freight services on April 18. This also marked the entry into service of new trains, improved catering, and a new fares structure

International Railway Journal, June, 2004

THE launch of the new timetable in April marked not only the fifth speed-up of train services in China since 1997, with major reductions in journey times, but also several firsts for rail transport in China.

Thanks to further improvements to the infrastructure, passenger trains can now travel at a maximum of 160km/h on 770km of lines. According to Mr Hu Yadong, a vice-minister of railways, the average speed of long distance passenger trains has been increased by 4.3km/h to 65.7km/h.

Chinese Railways (CR) introduced a new category of non-stop train called Zhite (Z). There are 18 pairs of Z trains radiating from Beijing. Five of them serve Shanghai. Other cities linked to Beijing by Z train include Harbin and Changchun to the north, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou to the southeast, Hefei, Wuchang, and Changsha, to the south, and Xi'an to the southwest. There is also one pair of trains linking Tianjin with Shanghai. The Z trains connecting Beijing and Shanghai complete the 1463km trip in 11h 58min, two hours faster than before the speed-up. On some routes, the reduction in journey time has been even more dramatic.

These extra trains have increased the total number of long-distance passenger trains to 1172 pairs/day. The number of seats available per day has been increased by 18.5% to 2.4 million.

For the speed-up, CR has put into service 135 new locomotives of various types, including the Dong Feng 11G diesel and the Shao Shan 7G and 9G electric locomotives, and 858 passenger coaches of two types. Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation supplied 338 coaches and Changchun Car Company 520 type 25T coaches.

The new coaches have been built to higher standards than before. The trains feature large, panoramic windows, airline-style seats, toilets for disabled passengers, toilet retention tanks, on-board television and entertainment, and a cafe-bar (pictured above).

For the first time, on board catering on three Beijing-Shanghai Z trains is provided by Shanghai Rail Gourmet Catering, a 49:51 joint venture between Shanghai Railway Bureau and Rail Gourmet, Switzerland. Passengers travelling in soft sleeper class will receive free food. Meals are served at passengers' seats or in the dining car.

Catering on Chinese trains has long been criticised by passengers as being unsavoury and expensive. The reaction to the new catering on the Beijing-Shanghai Z trains has been positive so fan The question now is whether the Ministry of Railways will allow more on-board catering to be privatised.

Two-Tier Fares Structure

A new two-tier fares structure has been introduced which is designed to take account of peak and off-peak travel periods. There are four peak periods covering 152 days a year. These cover the Chinese New Year, the so-called Golden Week in April/May, summer, and the autumn Golden Week starting on October 1. Huge numbers of people travel during these holiday periods. During the 10-day period from April 28 to May 7 this year, CR carried nearly 36.7 million passengers. To cope with this, an extra 900 trains were operated.

Tickets for Z trains can be booked between 180 and 20 days in advance of travel. Reservations become invalid if tickets are not paid for seven days in advance of travel.

For the first time, the speed-up also included an acceleration of freight trains, in addition, five pairs of parcels trains have been introduced on routes from Beijing to Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Urumchi, as well as the Shanghai-Guangzhou line. CR has also introduced dedicated container and refrigerated trains on lines linking the main cities.

Overall, CR has increased capacity for railfreight by 3%. While welcome, this is not nearly sufficient to keep up with demand. CR transported a record of nearly 2 billion tonnes of freight in 2003, but still failed to meet demand from China's rapidly-growing economy. This is particularly true of the first months of this year when the country faced increased pressure to transport key commodities such as coal, grain, chemical fertilizer, and petroleum. According to statistics released recently by the Ministry of Railways, the demand for freight wagons in China will top 290,000 this year, while the railway can only offer 96,000 wagons, less than one-third of the demand. In contrast, the railway met nearly 60% of the demand for freight wagons last year.

The slow development of the rail network and its limited capacity, especially for freight, represents a major bottleneck for the country's economy. "To ease the transport pressure, China must build more railways to lift its total transport capacity," Hu said. "But that takes a long time, and currently the most effective way is to upgrade our existing railways and increase transport speeds."

However, there has been some criticism of the speed-up policy in China, particularly the high cost. To increase line speeds, it has been necessary to increase curve radii, reinforce bridges, and build tunnels. It cost more than Yuan 4 billion ($US 483 million) to upgrade the Beijing-Shanghai main line, which has a better alignment than some other routes. This compares with Yuan 10 billion for the Zhejiang-Jiangxi line, which was in a poorer condition.