China launched its largest scale railway speed increase Sunday, adding over 3,500 kilometers of newlines into its express railway network and raising the speeds of its major lines to 160 kilometers per hour.

After this speed increase, China will be running trains on a total of 7,700 kilometers of railway at speeds exceeding 160 kilometers per hour, which will shorten the travel time between some major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

The speed of freight trains was also raised, which is the firsttime for China to raise the speeds of passenger trains and freighttrains together. The railway's cargo transport capacity will increase 3 percent, said the Ministry of Railways.

China takes speed acceleration as an important strategy to accelerate the railway's development. Since the year 1997, the country has launched a total of five railway speed increases to improve its railway's transport efficiency and quality.

During the first speed increase in 1997, China raised the speeds of major lines linking Beijing with other big cities to 140kilometers per hour, which was the fastest speed at that time.

Though the total number of trains put into operation was reduced after the first speed increase, the Ministry of Railways realized unexpected growth in its income.

To continue its growth, the ministry launched three more speed increases in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

By the year 2003, the express railway network of China had totaled 13,000 kilometers, including nearly 10,000 kilometers of lines at a speed exceeding 140 kilometers per hour and about 1,104kilometers lines at a speed exceeding 160 kilometers per hour.

The ministry said China has also set the timetable for the sixth railway speed increase, which will be launched next year with its major lines running at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

Along with the speed-raising strategy, China also sees great improvement in extending its railway lines by accelerating the construction. Since 1997, China increased investment on railway construction and by the end of 2003, the total length of China's railway has reached 73,000 kilometers, ranking the first in Asia and the third in world.

To further boost the railway's development, the Chinese Ministry of Railways has to speeded up construction for a middle and long-term goal of railway expansion.

Before the year 2020, the ministry plans to invest 2,000 billion yuan (242 billion US dollars) in building railways, by building more express passenger lines and some high-efficiency freight lines, such as ten special coal lines and a total of 16,000 km-long container transport network.

The ministry said from now through the first 20 years of the 21st century, there will be a new tide of railway construction in China, which will be the most important period for the developmentof China's railway.

Source: Xinhua