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Op-Ed Contributors

Fast train for Chinese economicrecovery on fast track

By Francis C W Fung (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2010-03-16 14:07

The future of fast train world market looks bright as the concern for energy conservation is growing.Chinese fast train companies plan to bid for contractsof building high-speed railways in the United States as China is willing toshare its advanced technologies.

Since the 2008 financial crisis many countries are searching for speedy economicsolutions to lead us out of the worst world economic down turn since the 1929depression. In President Obama’s 2010 state of the union speech he unleashed

plans for pushing America fast train deployment ahead starting with eight billiondollar loan guarantee to Florida. He even mentioned China’s fast train progress andpotential export market in his speech. For the first time since 1949 a U.S. presidentmentioned China in a state of the union speech in a positive till without criticism.Hopefully the fast train will also help American recovery.

Following news headlines from China Daily clearly indicates that China is moving fullsteam ahead to speed up her fast train deployment nationwide;

“The much anticipated Beijing toShanghai fast train will start operationone year ahead of original schedule in

2010 because of the stimulationpackage. The 12 hour trip will now beonly three hours.”

“At least ten new rail projects are beingplanned or constructed in the westnow, which eventually lead to theBeibu Gulf region, the "gate" for western provinces to go to the sea.

Related readings: New high-speed trains ready for testing

Alstom looks to high-speed trainmaintenance contracts

 High-speed railways to use privatecapital

 Chinese firms to bid on US high-speedrailways

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With a new rail network, even XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region in the far western inland will no longer be far from the coast.”

“China already has 6,552 km of rail

track in operation – the most high-speed rail track in the world.Ultimately, China plans to construct a120,000-km railway network, including50,000-km of high-speed rail track, by2020.”

“China now wants to export China'shigh-speed railway technology to NorthAmerica, Europe and Latin America.State-owned Chinese companies arealready building high-speed lines inTurkey and Venezuela. Manycountries, including the United States,Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, havealso expressed interest.”

It appears that China’s fast trainnetwork and export potential isreminiscent of the successful Americanautomobile, commercial airlinedevelopment and Internetcommunication explosion during the20th Century. In each case Americahas the internal market as initiallaunching pad to jump start ahead of the world. America with her vast NorthAmerican continent land mass in eachof the above cases was able to fullyutilize her market and manufacturingresources to become leader of theworld in those important industries.

In the commercial airline space,America the dynamic young country

after Second World War was able toattract many talented scientists fromEurope and Asia to help build thebiggest aerospace industrial center inthe world. As international commercialair travel expands Europe was caughtunprepared to play catch up. Half acentury later America still dominates

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the commercial airline industry.

Three decades ago America realizedshe was behind Japan and Europe infast train deployment because of her over reliance on the automobile.

Because of oil crisis there was ageneral interest to explore the use of fast train to complement airline travel.One of the promising routes is theheavily used corridor between LasVegas and Los Angeles. The author had the opportunity to be involved withthe Las Vegas city planningcommission as a consultant.Unfortunately despite active promotionand considerable interest the project

did not materialize. Now the projecthas lost its luster and imitativeespecially in this economic down turn.Unless there will be Federal stimulusfunding as the case in Florida theproject will not happen because of lackof funding.

In the fast train case, China’s large anddifficult land mass and huge populationcall for more rail than automobiletravel. Her government funded policy

of long range infrastructure planningalso is paying off. Over the last twodecades she was willing to pay for Japan, German and France technologyto build on. Today she has developedher own proprietary fast train industrywith over 900 relevant internationalhigh speed train patents. Chinesecompanies plan to bid for contracts of building high-speed railways in theUnited States as China is willing toshare its advanced technologies.

The future of fast train world marketlooks bright as the concern for energyconservation is growing. With China’shead start and her difficult terrain andhuge domestic market she willcontinue to build momentum.

The author is the Director General 

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World Harmony Organization.Opinions expressed are his own.