Making Tracks by Saxton Peter

Author:Saxton, Peter [Saxton, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michael O'Mara

CHINA

The story of recent railway development in China is an astonishing one. Early development was slow and stuttering. As elsewhere in the world it was Western powers (notably Britain) that led the way in constructing railways, keen to exploit the natural resources available in China. Unlike India, however, Western power in China was restricted to enclaves and trade missions and the Chinese government was deeply suspicious of and hostile to the new technology. It wasn’t only the government that was hostile – in a country with a huge population, many workers deeply feared (not unreasonably and certainly not uniquely) that the new technology would help to throw them out of work. It was only in 1895 that the government permitted foreign interest to develop railways in the country and it wasn’t until 1909 that the first all-Chinese-backed line was opened.

Railway development in the first half of the twentieth century was slow, with conflicts restricting the local ability to expand, although the invading Japanese did put a programme of railway construction in place in Manchuria. In the second half of the century, however, thanks to heavy investment by the People’s Republic, the Chinese network developed rapidly. Technologically, though, it remained firmly in the steam age – limitless coal and labour meant that initially the impetus to adopt other technologies wasn’t there. New steam locomotives continued to be produced up to 1999, but the end for steam then came very quickly, with the current emphasis on building modern, electrically powered high-speed lines.

An astonishingly fast-paced programme of line building has meant that China is now the home of the world’s largest network of high-speed railway lines – 19,000 km (12,000 miles) – including the longest high-speed line in the world linking Beijing and Hong Kong. In 2015, the Chinese government announced plans for a high-speed line to be built between Beijing and Moscow, in conjunction with Russia. This would be an astonishing achievement – a spend of $242bn for a line 7,000 km (4,350 miles) in length, planned to slash journey times between the cities to two days. This also raises the theoretical possibility of a through high-speed train from London to Beijing!

Not content with this, China also boasts the fastest regular train service anywhere, albeit not on a conventional railway system. The Shanghai Maglev Train operates between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Pudong itself – a distance of 30 km (18.5 miles). ‘Maglev’ is an abbreviation of ‘magnetic levitation’ – trains are levitated and propelled along a central guide-way by powerful magnets. The system allows for extremely high speeds – the Shanghai Maglev Train reaches a top speed in everyday service of 431 km/h (268 mph).

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