Results tagged “trains”

As much as we want the high-speed railway that will shorten the travel time between Shanghai and Beijing to just four hours to be finished, we'd rather it get done a little slower if it means we can prevent the startling amount of worker accidents that have been happening. Most recently, four workers were crushed to death and two others were injured when a 10-ton crane crashed into another crane during a heavy rainstorm. In March, seven workers were buried when the railway construction site in Jiangsu collapsed. Are worker deaths this frequent in other parts of the world too? Source: Shanghai Daily

All hail the Beijing-Shanghai railway! The bullet train runnin' monstrosity, which will cut the commute between China's two biggest cities down from 10 hours to four, is on the track for completion in 2011 and for operation by 2012. Already, its projected to be one of the busiest and most profitable railways in China... nay, the world! As proof, an official said that a similar high-speed line, the Beijing to Tianjin route, sells out over 70% of its tickets and will recover the cost of building in about 16 years. Besides being able to rub its profitability in Amtrack's face, we couldn't give a hoot about the finances. We're just excited that we'll be able to take by-train day trips to Beijing in the near future.

Bullet trains will be replacing all the daily Z trains between Shanghai and Beijing, making the commute between China's two mega-cities take ten hours instead of 12. Sadly, prices will be rising to accommodate the new technology - up to RMB 655 for upper berths and RMB 720 for lower berths one-way. Comparatively, the Z train's upper berth was RMB 478 and the lower berth was only RMB 499. We wonder if these fancy schmancy new bullet trains will have “hard seating.” Sure, it sucks to be sitting for ten hours, but at least you won't be wondering why you didn't just shell out the exact same price to go by plane. Source: Urbanatomy

Construction on the new rail line between Shanghai and Hangzhou will start by late March, officials said. The line will be 159km long with trains that run up to 350kmph, shortening the trip between the two cities to 28 minutes. Altogether, the project is expected to cost 29.68 billion yuan. Source: Xinhua

By 2015 it could happen, GoKunming reports. The journey currently takes 37 hours. According to GoKunming, "the Shanghai-Kunming passenger line (沪昆客运专线) will connect Shanghai and Kunming via the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan, passing through the major cities of Hangzhou, Nanchang and Changsha. Its target speed is reportedly 350 km/hr."

Photo by nocas.