Full speed ahead for China’s high-speed rail network in 2019 in bid to boost slowing economy

China plans to expand its high-speed rail network by 3,200km in 2019, which is more than is currently being operated in either Spain, Japan, Germany or France, in a bid to aid a slowing economy locked in the trade war with the United States.

The China Railway Corporation, the state-owned agency in charge of railway construction, plans to put a total of 6,800km of new track into service in 2019 as Beijing again relies on infrastructure investment to arrest an economic slowdown, according to a government plan released this week.

Spain, which has the world’s second biggest high-speed rail network after China, only has a total of around 3,100km of track in operation, followed by Japan, Germany and France.

China’s spending spree on railway infrastructure, which started in the aftermath of the global financial crisis a decade ago, means Beijing is well ahead of its schedule to build a total of 30,000km of high-speed railway lines by 2020.

At the end of 2018, China had over 29,000km of 250km/h (155mph) high-speed railway lines, two thirds of the world’s total, having added 4,100km in 2018 as part of a 4,683km overall expansion project last year.

As China is completing its strategic goal of building a nationwide high-speed rail network after a decade of construction, which has greatly reduced travel time between major Chinese cities, the railway authority is now looking at new lines that extend deep into the country’s remote corners.