With an exodus of millions of people heading for their villages, China has launched a new railway era. The journey from Shanghai to Beijing will be slashed by four hours.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – The New Year holiday, when millions of Chinese travel by rail, has provided a timely opportunity to launch high-speed trains. China’s railway stations are packed with migrant workers returning home to their families for the Lunar New Year in what has been described as the “greatest exodus in the history of mankind”. More than half a billion people travel at this time. Amid great fanfare, the railways ministry announced that 15 bullet trains have been put into service.

The trains will travel at a speed of 160km per hour for this test run set to continue until 18 April. Later they will be able to reach a speed of 250km per hour. In these 40 days, the 15 CRH (China railway High-Speed) trains will be tested on the most crowded routes: from Beijing to Shanghai, and from Shanghai to Canton.  Thanks to the new trains, when they are running at full steam, the trip from Shanghai to Beijing will be reduced from nine to five hours.

The railways ministry said that by 2020, about 130,000 kilometres of track - just over a third of China’s rail network – will be covered by high-speed trains.

The high-speed trains were designed and built for the most part in Germany, Japan, Canada and France. One of the models, the Alstom, was designed in Italy and will hit the rails in mid-April. Alstom has signed a contract with China to supply 60 trains worth 620 million euros.

 

• China
• economy
• train
• railways
• exodus
• migrants
• workers