Pandemic behind it, China ramps up metro rail boom
- Country’s urban rail system expands on unparalleled scale in 2021, researchers say
- China now on track to meet a 2025 target by the end of this year
China’s urban rail transit system expanded at an unprecedented rate last year, adding 62 brand-new metro lines in 35 cities, according to researchers with the China Association of Metros.
These projects increased the total length of China’s urban rail transit by over 15 per cent to 9,192km (5,711 miles), accounting for about a quarter of the world’s total.
The Chinese government originally planned to have 10,000km of urban rail by 2025 but rail experts now say that could be achieved by the end of December, three years ahead of schedule.
China “is keeping up with the strides to become a metro superpower”, said Hou Xiufang, senior engineer with the association and her colleagues in a paper published in domestic peer-reviewed journal Urban Rapid Rail Transit on February 18.
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China plans to expand world’s largest high-speed railway network to 50,000km by 2025
But while the transport system is expanding in China, urban rail has taken a hit from the pandemic in other parts of the world.