High-speed railway in China
| High-speed rail in China | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国高速铁路 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 中國高速鐵路 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōngguó Gāosù Tiělù |
High-speed rail (HSR) in China is the longest HSR system in the world extending to 29 of the country's 33 provincial-level entities. The network consists of newly built passenger-dedicated lines (PDLs) and intercity lines along with upgraded mixed passenger and freight lines. The newly built PDLs without including intercity and upgraded passenger and freight lines currently account for 22,000 km (14,000 mi) of service routes, a length that is more than the rest of the world's high-speed rail tracks combined. The addition of PDLs and other high speed lines is ongoing with the network of PDLs alone set to reach 38,000 km (24,000 mi) in 2025.
High-speed rail service in China was introduced on April 18, 2007 and has become immensely popular with an annual ridership of over 1.44 billion in 2016, making the Chinese HSR network the most heavily used in the world. Notable lines include the world's longest line, the 2,298 km (1,428 mi) Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway and the Shanghai Maglev, the world's first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation (maglev) line and the only non-conventional track line of the network.
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, which has overseen the 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. Though the system as a whole is considered successful, concerns about HSR safety, high ticket prices, financial sustainability and environmental impact of high-speed rail continue to exist for several projects.
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