Why China built the longest high-speed rail network in the world

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Can you imagine traveling by train from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk in 10 hours or from Paris to Athens in 9 hours? At first glance it may seem fantastic.

Meanwhile, for China this has long become a reality. For example, in 2018, a high-speed railway was built from Hong Kong to Beijing. This distance approximately corresponds to the above-mentioned route from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk. So, the Chinese express overcomes it in 8 hours 56 minutes.



It is worth noting that in China today a network of high-speed highways (HSM) has been built, which is 8 times longer in length than the French, 10 times the Japanese, 20 times the British and as much as 500 times the American. In general, China today has as many high-speed railway lines as there are in all countries of the world combined.

But the question arises: why did Beijing place emphasis and invest enormous amounts of money in this industry?

Firstly, traveling by train in China is in most cases more profitable than traveling by plane. For example, you can get from Changsha to Guangzhou by plane in an hour, and by train in 2 hours 20 minutes. Moreover, if we take into account registration, airport checks and landing, the time is approximately comparable. Moreover, the cost of a train ticket is much lower than an air ticket.

In addition, planes in China may not fly over the entire country. Only 30% of the airspace is available to civilian air carriers, the rest is controlled by the military. As a result, most flights arrive with serious delays.

Secondly, an extensive high-quality railway network is one way for the Chinese authorities to further unite the country.

Finally, thirdly, the availability of train tickets compared to air tickets is an important social factor that strengthens the position of the PRC authorities among the citizens of the country.

3 comments
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  1. olezenka1
    olezenka1
    +1
    2 January 2024 15: 14
    I hope that soon my Krasnoyarsk will become closer in time of travel in space to our capital with the help of the High Speed ​​Rail.... than to Beijing. )).
    1. Flight
      Flight
      0
      25 January 2024 03: 15
      To Irkutsk? By this time it will be easier to move the capital, because it is cheap, reliable and practical.
  2. Glagol1
    Glagol1
    +2
    2 January 2024 18: 36
    The Chinese are certainly great! This achievement will play for them for many decades. We don’t need to blindly copy, but in the future it would be nice to have feeders from Moscow to the south, north/northwest, and east, at least to Ekat.
    And embroider BAM. Otherwise, our everything is aviation. There is no point in covering our northern and sparsely populated expanses with a railway network; we cannot justify it economically. Our country is much further north than China, 2 times larger, we are 9 times smaller and our economy is exactly 6 times smaller. Aviation! Congratulations again to Sakhalin - and not only, such an airport will open in 2023!