Chinese high-speed rail: London to Beijing in two days flat

For all the talk of competition on the right – not to mention American exceptionalism – there sure seems to be a lot of malaise when it comes to actually competing on very forward thinking projects like high-speed rail.  Now it appears China plans on one-upping the rest of the world, and transforming rail travel altogether.  All I can say is that if China can connect London and Beijing, America should be able to connect at least one or two of its major cities.  And we should build now, before gas prices skyrocket making air and car travel much more expensive.   Having the infrastructure in place is just good planning, and we’ll be grateful for it in the long run.

For all China’s flaws, I can see how this would make sense for a country anticipating opening up to more freedom of movement, tourism, etc. down the line:

Japan may be famous for its bullet trains, but if China’s plans for a high-speed railway go forward, people could be zipping over from London to Beijing in under two days.

The train would go on from Beijing to Singapore, and also connect to India and Pakistan, opening up the East to non-fliers.

One of the senior consultants on the railway project, and also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Wang Mengshu, said that they are “aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as aeroplanes,” and that with any luck, the railway should be “completed in a decade.”

In addition to the London to Beijing plan, they’re also hoping to build railways from Beijing to Russia and Germany, connected with the European railway system. A third project that goes south from China, to Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia has already started, with a deal struck between Burma and China that will see the Chinese paying for the Burmese line, with the Chinese able to tap into their lithium reserves—which they can then use in production of batteries. [Telegraph]