Railways body eyes more trains, dual-speed lines

China will boost rail passenger capacity and shift the nation's high-speed railway to a dual-speed system, regarded as less sophisticated than train systems in France and Japan.

Despite the greater capacity, demand will still exceed supply and millions of travellers will still have difficulty obtaining train tickets.

'With increased capacity, the ability to satisfy passenger demand will significantly improve,' the Railways Ministry said yesterday.

From July 1, the total passenger capacity on the mainland's trains will increase 9.6 per cent to four million, while rail freight capacity will rise 6 per cent, the ministry said. To achieve this, the ministry will boost the number of trains by 195 to 2,129.

However, rail passenger demand is at least five million people on average each day, said Wang Yongping, spokesman of the Ministry of Railways. 'This means the difficulty of getting train tickets will remain, not only during the Lunar New Year but also in other seasons.'

The Ministry of Railways said the change in plan was mainly to increase capacity on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

The 1,318-kilometre rail system will be officially launched later this month. Costing 220.9 billion yuan (HK$265 billion), it is the world's longest and most expensive high-speed line.