China planning to connect Beijing to London by high-speed rail

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Yes, please. I often view articles that hype China with suspicion but high-speed rail is very doable for any government that really intends to get it done, and let's not forget that China 1) has already completed the huge line connecting Tibet with the rest of the country, 2) has spent a lot of money on the maglev in Shanghai, and 3) is in Asia where high-speed rail is the norm for a developed country and the question is not if, but only when.

The plan is to build three lines, one connecting London to Beijing, another going from Beijing north to Russia and then into Europe extending to Berlin, and a third going down to Singapore.

It's also interesting to note that China is interested in materials from relatively poorer countries, not monetary investment.

Here's a very rough idea of what the three lines might look like. Now if only something could be done about North Korea (this plan for high-speed rail is over the next ten years so Kim Jong-Il would either be 79 by then or a new leader would have taken his place by then) and South Korea and Japan would hurry up and build the tunnel connecting Busan with Fukuoka then one could then take the train from Tokyo to London too.


View Chinese world railway in a larger map

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