Speed increase on Harbin to Dalian rail line delayed

The 50 per cent speed increase on the high-speed rail from Harbin to Dalian, originally scheduled for April 1, is likely be postponed for operational and safety reasons.

Slicing through the airlines

The integration of air travel and high-speed rail services on the mainland will benefit major airports like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, but hurt smaller airports and short-haul flights, say industry players.

Mainland China moved by trains, not planes

The report about how China's domestic air carriers are feeling the pinch from competition with high-speed rail was inevitable ("Mainland airlines fly into headwinds from high speed trains", February 20).

I have been warning for years that railways are the sensible way to go and that ever-expanding aviation is doomed because of its environmental destructiveness.

Fast track to big economic benefits

"High-speed rail will push [mainland] China's economy forward significantly," said Anthony Wong, a former president of the Hong Kong Logistics Association, citing the Chinese proverb, "When the road is through, the money will flow".

2020 target for Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail link

A high-speed rail link between Singapore and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur may be completed by 2020, leaders of the two countries said yesterday.

China's high-speed rail network carries burden of being safe and affordable

China's desire to be a science and technology leader was made plain when it became the third nation to put a man in space in 2003. With the opening of the world's longest high-speed railway on Wednesday - a 2,298 kilometre line from Beijing to Guangzhou on which trains run at more than 300km/h, completing the route in just eight hours - it is well on the way to becoming a technology master.

Shanghai's maglev passenger traffic lower than expected

Shanghai's 30-kilometre maglev railway has seen its business so pummelled by the expansion of the city's metro system it is increasingly becoming a white elephant, leaving city officials red-faced.

China Railway Construction Corp wins 13.2b yuan of orders

China Railway Construction Corporation has won two contracts worth 13.2 billion yuan (HK$16.4 billion), the company announced on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website yesterday.

Mainland railway firm eyes US project

Despite the China-bashing in the United States presidential election, which has entered its final week, a Chinese state-owned enterprise is in talks to win a US infrastructure project worth at least US$700 million.

Safety laws target high-speed railways

The central government is considering legislation that would make China's railway system safer, in part by banning the hasty completion of high-speed lines.

The drafted legislation comes as the national auditor issued its latest findings of financial irregularities in rushed high-speed rail projects.

Funding problems delaying super transport hubs

Although Beijing plans to spend billions of yuan on transport hubs, many are being delayed and pared back because of funding problems, the recent China International Forum on Urban Mass Transit in Shanghai heard.

A comprehensive transport hub typically combines metro railway, high-speed rail, an intercity station, an airport and a port.

Substandard parts used in railway tunnels

More than 20 high-speed railways constructed since 2005 have substandard components, according to a state media report that puts the embattled network back in the spotlight.

Tests found that the faulty parts connected structures like pipelines to the concrete sections of tunnels.