Author: TravelsWithLobo
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Being a "train buff" for many years I have been totally fascinated by the evolution of high speed trains around the world. I can still remember being on a bicycle tour inFrance in the '80 and seeing a test run of a TGV (Train a Grand Vitesse) for the first time. I was hooked from that point on. Most recently I had the pleasure on riding on the Shinkansen in Japan so I was eager se what CHR (Chinese High Speed Rail_had to offer - I was not disappointed. From Wikipedia: High-speed rail (HSR) in China refers to any railway in China with commercial train service at the speed of 200 km/h (124 mph) or higher. By that measure, China has the world's longest HSR network with over 16,000 km (9,900 mi) of track in service as of December 2014[1] which is more than the rest of the world's high speed rail tracks combined. China's high speed rail system also includes the world's longest line, the 2,298 km (1,428 mi) Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway.[2] Since high-speed rail service in China was introduced on April 18, 2007, daily ridership has grown from 237,000 in 2007[3] to 2.49 million in 2014,[4] making the Chinese HSR network the most heavily used in the world.[5][6] The nationwide HSR network, which extends to 28 of the country's 33 provinces and regions, consists mainly of conventional track railways including upgraded mixed passenger and freight lines, newly-built passenger designated lines (PDLs) and intercity lines.[7] There is also the Shanghai Maglev, the world's first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation (maglev) line, which is owned and operated by the Shanghai municipality government. Nearly all high-speed rail lines and rolling stock are owned and operated by the China Railway Corporation, the state enterprise formerly known as the Railway Ministry. Over the past decade, the country has undergone an HSR building boom with generous funding from the Chinese government's economic stimulus program. The pace of high-speed rail expansion slowed for a period in 2011 after the removal of Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun for corruption and a fatal high-speed railway accident near Wenzhou, but has since rebounded. Concerns about HSR safety, high ticket prices, low ridership, financial sustainability of high-speed rail projects and environmental impact have drawn greater scrutiny from the Chinese press.[8] China's early high-speed trains were imported or built under technology transfer agreements with foreign train-makers including Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Chinese engineers then re-designed internal train components and built indigenous trains that can reach operational speeds of up to 380 km/h (240 mph).[9][10]