The railway infrastructure modernization project implemented in China is comparable in scale to the construction of the Great Wall of China. The country's authorities have invested about $300 billion in the creation of high-speed railways (HSR). Today, China's high-speed rail network is longer than that of Japan and Europe combined. Lenta.ru found out what modern Chinese railways, why the Chinese government spared no money on obviously unprofitable projects and what are the prospects for using Chinese experience and technology on Russian soil.

Great Network of China

By the beginning of the 21st century, Chinese railways were not a locomotive, but rather a brake economic development countries. The development of transport did not correspond to the increased level of population mobility. Railways, with an average speed of 48 kilometers per hour, were losing competition to highways and air transport.

As a result, in 1997, a campaign was launched to increase the speed of railways, the main activities of which were large-scale electrification, the construction of tunnels and bridges to straighten routes, updating the locomotive and carriage fleet, and improving service on trains. By 2007, the average speed of passenger trains reached 70 kilometers per hour, and on some “exemplary” sections, trains accelerated to 160 kilometers per hour. However, this was just the beginning.

In the mid-2000s, Beijing launched an ambitious campaign to create a high-speed rail network. The volume of investments in the creation of new lines already in 2007 amounted to $26 billion. The global economic crisis that soon began contributed to even greater investments in the construction of high-speed lines. This was done in order to provide employment and stimulate economic growth. As a result, by 2009 the total volume of capital investments reached $88 billion, continuing to increase. The total investment in creating a network of 25-30 thousand kilometers (estimated length for 2020) is estimated at about $300 billion.

It is important to understand that high-speed lines are completely new lines, and not an upgrade of existing ones. Usually they are built parallel to existing ones, but in some areas they are the only ones, and they do not have “back-ups”. In such cases, they can also be used for transporting goods. Although, HSR mainly specialize in servicing passenger traffic, carrying over three million passengers per day (the largest figure in the world). To understand the scale of the market, it should be noted that Chinese railways transport about 47 million people every day.

Over ten years of active construction, 19 thousand kilometers of high-speed roads were created, which makes the Chinese high-speed railway network the largest in the world - more than in Japan and Europe combined. In Russia, there is not yet a single “dedicated” high-speed railway line - high-speed Sapsan trains run on ordinary roads, and for the sake of them the traffic of other trains is blocked.

Initially, the Chinese used foreign technologies: French (Alstom), Canadian (Bombardier) and Japanese (Kawasaki). Chinese manufacturers, who have been very creative in using the intellectual rights of their foreign partners, have not only reached the same technological level in less than a decade, but also taken leading positions in the world. And now it is Chinese technologies that are most competitive in the promising markets of India, Brazil and Mexico.

In terms of the volume of investments and significance for the country, the creation of a high-speed railway network is quite comparable to such grandiose infrastructure projects of the past as the construction of the Great Wall of China during the time of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (3rd century BC) and the Great Imperial Canal, which connected the Yellow River basins in the 6th century and Yangtze.

How it works

For high-speed lines, completely new stations are usually built, more like huge airports than railway stations. Such stations become growth points for peripheral “development zones” - often in suburbs or satellite cities. Business and service industries are accumulating around them. Connection with urban transport systems turns them into transport hubs. For example, the Hongqiao junction became such a hub not only for Shanghai, but also for the surrounding provinces - the place where international Airport, railway station and several branches of the Shanghai metro.

High-speed trains in China include G trains (called “gaote”) with a maximum speed of 310 kilometers per hour, as well as D trains (“dongche”), which can accelerate to 250 kilometers per hour. "Gaote" move only on special highways, which have a number of features: they have smaller turning angles and only use a ballast-free track on a concrete base. Slower “dongche” can also move on some “ordinary” roads. Currently, HSR trains account for approximately 20 percent of total passenger traffic, while 80 percent are “regular” trains, the fastest of which (direct overnight express trains between the country's largest cities) can travel at speeds of 140-160 kilometers per hour.

Previously, Chinese trains were not only slow, but also uncomfortable. It was considered common practice to smoke directly in the carriage. They were noisy and smelled bad; Air conditioning was rare, and this was even specifically indicated on the tickets. At the moment, the situation has changed dramatically. Even in ordinary trains, the carriage composition has been completely replaced. Trains with the letters G and D are reminiscent of airplanes in terms of comfort: soft reclining seats (there are no sleeping places on the high-speed train), dry toilets, air conditioning, and the absence of irritating music. Tickets cost twice as much as regular trains, but are still cheaper than air tickets. And certainly the new type of trains is much more comfortable than buses, where, in the old fashioned way, Chinese TV series about civil war, worse than which can only be the Chinese analogue of the Full House program.

High-speed trains have changed the concept of space. China is a huge country, travel through which previously required a significant investment of time, effort and nerves. Now the distance between Beijing and Shanghai (1318 kilometers) by train G-1 can be covered in 4 hours 48 minutes. For comparison: the Sapsan train between Moscow and St. Petersburg travels an hour faster, but the distance here is half as long. The distance between Beijing and Guangzhou is 2,100 kilometers; the fastest train with the letter G can travel it in eight hours. In Russia, approximately the same distance separates Moscow and Tyumen; on the branded Rossiya train it is covered in one day and six hours.

All high-speed railways are managed by CRH (China Railway High-Speed), a subsidiary of the state corporation China Railways, which is under the control of the Ministry of Transport and the State Railway Administration. The former railway ministry was abolished in 2013 following the Wenzhou high-speed train collision (40 deaths) and a corruption scandal involving its former leader. Liu Zhijun, considered the father of the HSR system, was accused of receiving kickbacks of up to four percent for road construction contracts. However, there were already enough questions about the effectiveness of the ministry’s work.

Photo: Wei Wanzhong / Xinhua / Globallookpress.com

All Chinese high-speed lines are unprofitable and are subsidized by the state. Both in terms of construction and maintenance. Funding is obtained from state banks in the form of loans to the railway corporation and regional authorities. The payback period for relatively short lines between large cities (for example, Beijing - Tianjin) is 15-16 years with a passenger flow of about 30 million people per year. Getting highways to zero in remote areas with difficult terrain is practically impossible.

In fact, the state sponsors the creation of obviously unprofitable highways, while solving such strategic problems as employment of workers and businesses. In addition, fast, convenient and inexpensive transport unites the country: it allows the population to travel to neighboring cities to study and work, travel and spend money in tourist areas. All this ultimately leads to the unification of China, the spread of common values ​​and the normative Chinese language. As one Chinese scholar said on this occasion: “Only hieroglyphs have contributed more to the unity of our country than highways.”

Against the backdrop of a new economic crisis, the government is seeking to secure new orders for its industry. Since the entire transport infrastructure has been more or less built in China, Beijing is turning its attention to its neighbors, whose infrastructure is much worse.

Moreover, in some sections the Chinese high-speed lines have reached almost the state border. In the west, the Lanzhou - Urumqi highway was built (it is, however, not yet connected to Beijing). In the northeast, the high-speed railway network reached the border city of Hunchun, from which Vladivostok is only 125 kilometers in a straight line. In 2019, the HSR is expected to be extended from Harbin to Mudanjiang (370 kilometers to Vladivostok).

Connection with Russia

In 2014-15, the authorities of Heilongjiang province expressed the idea of ​​​​building the Harbin-Vladivostok high-speed railway. Competing officials from Jilin Province proposed the option of the Hunchun-Vladivostok high-speed railway with an extension to Khabarovsk. Russian officials love to dream no less, so, in turn, they came up with a project for the Hunchun-Fenshuilin-Vladivostok road-railway corridor, which involves, in particular, the construction of a 10-kilometer bridge across the Amur Bay. Obviously, in all cases we are talking about the construction of a road with a Chinese track and one single stop - the final one, at which border and customs procedures will be carried out.

Perhaps, from the point of view of development strategy for the long term, setting such goals is necessary. However, on this moment all three “projects” look like unscientific fiction. Judging by the Chinese experience and taking into account the current volumes of cross-border passenger traffic, none of the routes will ever pay off. At the same time, their implementation will require colossal amounts of money, which neither the region nor the federal budget currently has. Potentially, Chinese investors have funds, however, what could force them to invest in an obviously unprofitable infrastructure project on the territory of another state is unclear.

Contrary to popular belief in Russia, Chinese investors are not good wizards, but pragmatic businessmen who always think about their own benefit. Perhaps the Chinese border authorities are counting on subsidies from the Center. But it will be possible to obtain them only if the maximum use of Chinese technology and production is guaranteed. Roughly speaking, only if it is a Chinese road, built by Chinese workers using Chinese materials and equipment imported duty-free, will it be of interest to Beijing.

The same problems apply to another project, much more realistic. It's about about the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, a memorandum on the joint construction of which was signed during Xi Jinping’s May visit to Moscow. Preparations are currently underway project documentation. In September, concession agreements are expected to be signed with the Chinese side, which won the tender on an uncontested basis. Russia now has neither the appropriate technologies nor its own financial resources (initially it was planned to spend a trillion rubles on the project, which today’s budget cannot afford), nor the ability to look for sources of financing in European banks.

Photo: Roman Yarovitsyn / Kommersant

Bargaining with potential Chinese investors continues, but it is unclear how it will end. Chinese capital, ready to participate in the consortium, would like to receive unprecedented preferences and make maximum use of its capabilities. The Russian side is striving to localize production as much as possible and get not only a road, but also an industrial boom in the surrounding areas.

Chinese experts are already saying that a separate high-speed rail line without creating a network makes no sense. Following this logic, they propose extending it to Yekaterinburg and further to the border with Kazakhstan, and in the future to Beijing. Perhaps this is exactly the order that Chinese builders need, who, having built everything at home, may soon be left without work. The very approximate cost of the project is $250 billion, that is, slightly less than all the Chinese spending on their own HSR network.

However, there are still more questions about this project than answers. Only the Chinese have money for construction, but this automatically means Chinese rules in organizational and technical aspects, which Russia and Kazakhstan may not agree to for various reasons.

China has the world's largest high-speed rail network, with a total length of more than 7,055 km, including a 1,995 km section where train speeds exceed 350 km/h. China is currently experiencing a boom in high-speed rail construction. With government support and special incentives, the total length of the high-speed rail network is expected to reach 13,000 km by 2012 and 16,000 km by 2020.

Just 20 years ago, the average speed of passenger trains in China was 48 km/h and continued to decline. And today we are Rustem We reached Shanghai from Wuxi (140 km) in 40 minutes.

01. Train station in Wuxi city. Most S-Bahn stations look like this.

02. Login.

03. To buy a ticket you must have an ID card. In vending machines with Russian passport I couldn’t buy a ticket, I had to go to the box office.

04. The cost of a ticket to Shanghai (140 km) in a business class carriage is only 450 rubles. If my memory serves me correctly, a regular train costs that much in Russia. And the high-speed Sapsan will cost 4 times more.

05. Mandatory baggage inspection at the entrance to the waiting room.

06. The most important thing is that you can film at Chinese train stations! During the entire time, no one came up and made any comments, although I filmed everything and did not hide.

07. By 1993, the average speed of passenger trains in China was 48 km/h and continuing to decline. Rail transport was losing its attractiveness for passengers, losing popularity to air travel and road transport. With this in mind, China's Ministry of Railway Transport has developed a strategy to increase train speeds by building new high-speed lines. Today China is the first in the world in terms of the length of expressways.

08. High-speed trains run between almost all major cities, and soon they will completely replace the old electric trains.

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11. Descend to the platform only before the arrival of the train with a ticket.

12. The stations are very spacious and airy.

13. For comparison, this is the exit to a regular platform where old trains run. Everything is like ours.

14. The train has arrived. In technological terms, the organization of high-speed rail traffic occurs through technology transfer agreements from reputable foreign manufacturers such as Bombardier, Alstom, and Kawasaki. By adopting foreign technologies, China strives to make its own developments based on them. For example, the CRH-380 train, which arrived on our platform, was made in China in 2010. It reaches speeds of up to 350 km per hour.

15. The CRH380A train was put into operation immediately after testing a year ago.

16. There are 3 classes on the train - first, business and economy.

17. This is a first class carriage.

18. The chair turns into a bed and you can sleep.

19. This is business class. There are just big comfortable chairs here.

20. There is a power outlet under each chair.

21. Toilet in a business class carriage.

22. And this is the economy one. The cost of a ticket here is two times lower than in business.

23. The toilet here is simpler.

24. The train accelerates to 350 km per hour. We covered a distance of 140 km in 40 minutes with three stops.

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28. A Chinese peasant and a European tourist feel the same here - everything is incomprehensible and very cool.

29. And this is the standard view from the window. China is one huge construction site. But more on that in the next post.

"Do you want us to boo? Inexpensive." I asked Viti when we were planning an autumn trip to China. It was a rhetorical question. I knew that Vitya was never against shushing, especially inexpensively. More specifically, we had to buy a ticket for a high-speed train from to, and I suggested taking a business class ride in order to briefly experience all the delights of Chinese railway luxury.

As I expected, Vitya immediately agreed. Fortunately, such a ticket was not very expensive:

The distance between the two cities is about 400 km, which is a good four hours by car, but the high-speed train covers the distance in about one and a half hours. At the same time, a ticket in second class costs about $25, in first class - $40, and in business class $80! Yes, on Chinese trains business class is considered better than first class, unlike most airlines)!

12. And here is the railway business class seat. There's plenty of legroom and nice red leather (or some similar synthetic material).

13. There are only five seats in the business salon: there are three seats in the first row, and only two in the second. There are pockets in the backs of the seats, although it is absolutely impossible to reach them without standing up.

14. So, let's go!

15. It's time to explore what the railway company pampers its best passengers with. Each of us is given two pairs of slippers! This seems like another attempt to imitate . Perhaps the Japanese love slippers about as much as the Chinese love all sorts of fences and fences.

16. A table is pulled out from the arm of the chair, and a small tablet lies in the pocket at the feet of the seat. It seems like a TV instead.

17. True, it immediately turned out that there was also a TV. Both devices were entirely in Chinese, and I was never able to do anything useful with them. But we must give them credit, they already provided me with about ten minutes of entertainment.

18. It seems like they really are looking like an airline here - at least the conductor is dressed just like flight attendants on airplanes! And the cart also looks like something bought from Boeing. True, they don’t serve alcohol here, so I had to settle for tea.

19. Each passenger in the business lounge was given this box of goodies.

20. Inside are cookies, candies, and other sweets. As for me, they could have chosen something more sophisticated, after all, this is BUSINESS CLASS!

21. The most important quality of any seat in the business is the ability to convert into a completely horizontal bunk. And here, I must note, the Chinese did not disappoint. He pressed a button, and the seat slowly reclines and moves away with a hum.

22. While I was photographing and checking all this, Vitya had already fallen asleep and was having a third dream. Lucky are those who can immediately pass out like that! He slept most of the hour and a half on the road.

23. This door leads to the ordinary part of the train, where the common losers ride. Above it is a board with air speed and temperature. And also an indicator whether the toilet is free. Yes, unfortunately, you have to share the toilet with these plebeians from the first class.

This is the railway business. Of course it's not worth that kind of money. What do you think?

The well-known principle “time is money” for business is more relevant today than ever. In order to do everything in time and not be late, humanity is inventing new ways of transportation. One of them was high-speed rail (HSR), which over the past 20 years has won the hearts and wallets of millions of passengers around the world.

In China, Japan and Europe, trains, covering 300-350 km in just an hour, successfully compete with airplanes. The Celestial Empire, mastering with fanatical zeal the new kind transport, in terms of the length of the HSR, it was ahead of its closest competitors for many years to come.

Only in 2010-2012. The Chinese government and state banks allocated about $355 billion for the development of railways, a significant part of which went to expand the network of expressways. This year, China is investing another $104 billion in railways. In Russia, they are still only thinking about creating a high-speed railway, “accelerating” trains along Soviet-built railway tracks.

Japan and China "stole" the Europeans' dream

Engineers and designers have been trying to create fast trains since the advent of rail transport. The first officially recorded speed record on the railway - 210 km per hour - was set in the suburbs of Berlin in 1903, even before the first plane took to the skies.

However, the long-standing dream of Europeans about super-fast trains was destined to come true 60 years later on the other side of the world. In 1964 In Japan, the world's first public high-speed rail (HSR), the Shinkansen, opened between Tokyo and Osaka, now carrying more than 150 million passengers annually. It is curious that during the half-century of operation of the line, not a single disaster occurred on it.

China has made a colossal leap in the development of high-speed rail (or, as they are also called, high-speed rail) over the past 10 years, leaving its closest competitors from Europe and Asia far behind. If in the mid-1990s in the Middle Kingdom trains pulled at an average speed of 50 km/h, then in the early 2000s it increased to 200 km/h.

By the beginning of 2013 The Chinese have built and upgraded more than 8,500 km of railway tracks for high-speed and high-speed trains. Last December, the world's longest and one of the fastest railway lines from Beijing to Guangzhou were opened in China. On it, trains cover a distance of almost 2,300 km in just eight hours, accelerating to 350 km/h.

Such projects require significant cash injections from the state. In 2010 Chinese authorities allocated a record 800 billion yuan ($129 billion) for the development of the railway network in 2011-2012. Another $226 billion was invested. Plan for 2013. - about 104 billion dollars By 2015 The Chinese expect to increase the total length of the railway network to 120 thousand km, including 18 thousand km of high-speed lines.

Having “tested” high-speed line technologies, China announced its planned expansion into markets South-East Asia and the Middle East. Currently, high-speed rail construction projects are being discussed that will connect China with Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and even the UK (Beijing - London line). The Chinese are ready to build a network of high-speed highways to India and Europe, and at half the price of the Germans or almost half the price of the Koreans.

High speed trains ahead of the planes

Europe is actively catching up with its Asian neighbors, creating a unified high-speed rail network, coordinating the actions of railway operators and creating real competition for airlines at distances of 600-800 km.

The pioneers in the development of expressways in this part of the world were Italy and France with their famous Pendolino and TGV trains. Since the opening of the first high-speed railway from Paris to Lyon in 1981. TGV trains have repeatedly broken their own speed records, exceeding a fantastic speed of 570 km/h for land transport.

The example of the French was followed by the Germans and Spaniards, and in 1994. A high-speed line was launched through the Channel Tunnel, connecting the capitals of France and England. After its opening, the number of flights between Paris and London decreased significantly.

Today, the total length of high-speed railways and the volume of passenger traffic on them around the world are growing at a record pace. According to forecasts of the International Union of Railways, by 2014. The length of the high-speed railway network will increase from the current 17 thousand to 27 thousand km.

We'll go a different way

In Russia, the high-speed railway project was developed back in the 70s of the last century; in the late 1980s, a high-speed railway development program was adopted. However, in the 90s, for obvious reasons, it was safely forgotten. The idea of ​​high-speed rail traffic in our country was realized only at the beginning of the 21st century.

They did not build separate railway lines for high-speed lines like abroad; instead, they launched high-speed trains purchased from the German Siemens and the French Alstom on the existing infrastructure. In 2009 Sapsan aircraft began to travel between the two capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg - at speeds of up to 200 km/h; they also connected the Mother See with Nizhny Novgorod. High-speed Allegro trains carry passengers to Helsinki from the northern capital of the Russian Federation, and in January 2013. Lastochka trains were launched from St. Petersburg to Veliky Novgorod and Bologoye.

0 20px 0 25px;"> "Sapsan" and "Allegro" in 2012 transported 3.5 million passengers. In total, since December 2009, when they were launched, there have been more than 9 million passengers. The average load of these high-speed trains is more than 80%. "Sapsan" and "Allegro" transport passengers at speeds of up to 200 km/h. average speed Long-distance trains of the Federal Passenger Company today do not exceed 60 km/h.

Today, three main directions for the development of high-speed rail in Russia with speeds of up to 350 km/h are being considered. This is an already tested route Moscow - St. Petersburg, as well as the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod- Kazan - Yekaterinburg and Moscow - Rostov-on-Don - Adler.

According to the first vice-president of OJSC "" Alexander Misharin (heads the High-Speed ​​Railways company supervising the project), the pilot direction for the construction of the high-speed railway will most likely be Moscow - Kazan.

“It is more expedient (to build a branch - RBC note) to the East, since there is a prospect for development - to extend it to Yekaterinburg with the connection of Perm, Chelyabinsk and Ufa. Geopolitics is already appearing there, access to China,” explained the top manager of Russian Railways.

The Institute for Problems of Natural Monopolies (IPEM) emphasizes that the rapid development of high-speed rail passenger transport in France, Germany, Japan and China is supported and subsidized by the government.

“In Russia, as in the United States, for example, there is no clear position of the state regarding the transportation of passengers along the high-speed railway. However, in the United States, unlike the Russian Federation, there is no urgent need for rail passenger transportation, since small aviation and bus service are sufficiently developed.” , says IPEM expert analyst Lev Ruzavin.

In his opinion, in our country “regional aviation is in decline, and bus transportation is carried out by many private companies over which it is impossible to establish control and ensure the required level of safety.”

Alexander Volobuev, RBC

Carrying out olympic games in China in 2007 gave impetus to the development of high-speed rail traffic in the country. a railway line was opened for high-speed trains with a speed of 330 km per hour.

The line connected the capital Beijing and the port Tiajin. And this is not the limit! Benjin and Shanghai are connected by a line for high speed train at a speed of 350 km per hour. To create high-speed movement, technologies from the Japanese company Kawasaki were used. Lately there is a tendency to use Chinese technologies in this direction. Chinese companies sell their trains to northern and south america. For comparison, high-speed trains in Europe can reach speeds of up to 270 km per hour, while the Japanese bullet train travels at a speed of 234 km per hour.

In 2010, China's high-speed train set a new speed record of 486.1 kilometers per hour, almost 70 kilometers per hour faster than the previous record, Chinese media reported Friday.

The record was set during a test run of the CRH380A series train on the section between the cities of Zaozhuang and Benpu on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

The new record significantly surpassed the previous figure of 416.6 kilometers per hour, which the Chinese-made train achieved at the end of September this year.

Chinese experts have begun to design a train that will reach speeds of over 500 kilometers per hour.

Speed ​​records have so far been set only as part of research tests. At the same time, according to the Chinese Ministry of Railways, China currently has 337 trains capable of reaching speeds of up to 380 kilometers per hour, which are used to transport passengers.

China has 7.55 thousand kilometers of high-speed railways. More than 10 thousand kilometers of high-speed railway track are under construction.

In 2011, China opened another high-speed railway line. This time - between Wuhan and Guangzhou. It was built in just four years and is now the longest high-speed railway line in the world - 1068 km.
Trains on it reach a speed of 350 km/h. So you can get from Wuhan to Guangzhou not in ten hours, as usual, but in just 2 hours 58 minutes. The fare ranges from $70 to $114 one way. In 2012, about 13,000 km of high-speed railways (200-350 km/h) will be in operation in China.

By 2012, China will have high-speed transportation on 42 railway lines, further boosting its economy. The distance that previously took ten hours to cover now is only three. This is an excellent alternative to road transport with eternal traffic jams and airplanes with the required pre-registration. Inside, the train is not divided into carriages and presents a single space. There are no shaking, vibrations or shocks when moving. The trains are equipped with soft anatomical seats, TVs, and drink machines. Hot lunches are also provided, served by well-trained stewards. The cost of lunch is included in the ticket.

What does it look like? To a giant airport? To the cosmodrome? A still from a movie about the future? No, guys, this is a Chinese station. Gigantic building. Futuristic architecture. Elevators, escalators, dozens and hundreds of information boards, marble floors polished to a mirror shine, living palm trees, comfortable temperature, perfect cleanliness. There are several thousand people here at the same time. But they are all so evenly distributed in a common gigantic space that there is no feeling of a crowd characteristic of train stations.

There are restaurants, McDonald's, Starbucks, and brand stores here. There are recreation areas and playgrounds for children. At the ticket office there is a special window for foreigners to purchase tickets. An adult and serious Chinese woman in glasses sells tickets to “laowais” with an air as if they are her students and she is an English teacher.

Regular trains do not arrive at this station. There are high-speed trains here. The fact is that China is now building a gigantic web of high-speed railways throughout the country. This web already connects dozens of strategic millionaires with each other. And in the next few years it will cover literally the whole country.

These trains are an excellent alternative to two types of transport at once. Firstly, cars. Previously, to get from one city to another, you had to take a car, stand in city traffic jams for a long time, get on the highway, pay tolls (the roads in China are toll), fill up with gas and drive at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour in the vicinity of crazy Chinese drivers trucks. Now on a high-speed train this can be done three times faster and three times cheaper. At the same time, you will spend time in comfortable conditions and will not get tired while driving.

And secondly, it is an alternative to airplanes. Because now from almost any major city to another Big City You can not only fly by plane, but also get there on such a high-speed train. This is often much more convenient. And always cheaper. And it works.

At the station, all passengers wait for their train in the common waiting room. And only when the high-speed train is delivered to the platform and it opens its sealed doors, passengers are invited to board. The landing system here is the same as at airports. That is why the platforms themselves are always deserted and spotlessly clean.

AP Photo/Xinhua, Cheng Min // Wuhan depot and some of the fastest trains in the world.

Buying tickets, finding the right exit to the platform, the path from the waiting room to the train - all this is organized so logically and predictably that anyone can figure it out. Even "laowai". And even “laowai”, who flew to China for the first time and just now.

Trains arrive on time. And they leave on time. This is a system. A clear and thoughtful matrix.

After the train arrives, passengers go through automatic gates to one of the platforms, of which there are several dozen. And almost immediately they find themselves inside the train.

AP Photo // Driver in the cabin of the CRH3 train.

Inside the train is a single space. No partitions or separated carriages. You can walk from the end of the train to the beginning without opening or closing a single door. Soft, comfortable chairs, information boards (where the names of stops, time and speed are displayed), LCD TVs, sockets for laptops, coolers with hot and cold water...

Such trains are served by specially trained conductors. Nice but strict Chinese women in blue uniforms. It is to them that you can ask your naive question and receive a completely serious answer to it. They don't flirt at work...

Pay attention to this young man in a red vest. This is a railway employee. He delivers lunches. Rice with meat. Chicken with meat. And sweet donuts.

Even though these trains run really fast, the speed inside them is not felt at all. They are very stable. There is no shaking or vibration. And you can only understand how fast the train is moving when an oncoming train passes outside the window. Oncoming trains over two hundred meters long fly past in less than two seconds. At the same time, the air wave from them hits the windows with such force that you involuntarily shudder every time. The feeling is pretty cool. The first few times I didn't even understand what it was. And only then I realized: “Uff, these are oncoming trains!”

The new generation of trains in China is not “what it is” and not “we have it too”, and not “blablabla”. This is a well-thought-out, convenient and popular project on a federal scale. Oriented not at the metropolitan elite, but at the people. (By the way, like many things in China).

Despite all its futurism and grandeur, the prices here are not at all high. And a businessman from Shanghai in a suit and tie, and a rice farmer who is returning from the capital to his village, can easily sit in the adjacent seats. At the same time, they will definitely talk loudly, discuss the weather, politics, the Dow Jones index, agricultural fertilizers and a bunch of other things...

China needs to move. Travel quickly, conveniently and affordably. The speed of movement around the country is very important for the economy and business to continue to develop at the same insanely fast pace. Everyone is interested in this. And the state that “creates conditions.” And “the people and business” who take advantage of these conditions. And I generally understand why such high-speed railways are being built here and not somewhere else.

Schematic diagram of railway and high-speed railways in the region of Eastern China

Schematic diagram of China's expressways (built, under construction and planned for construction)

This is what the blogger writes imajarov about my trip on this train.

Driving along the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway. Travel time is 45 minutes.
Tickets cost 82 yuan for third class, 131 yuan for first class. There is also a compartment (a fenced-off enclosure for 6 people in a 1st class carriage) - 240 yuan per person.

The first feeling is quite impressive: the train first slowly leaves the station and lazily, at a speed of 120-130 km per hour, “travels” along the access tracks. Then it goes onto a high-speed overpass, and in 10-20 seconds it rapidly accelerates to 220-250 km. And the further acceleration to 350 km/h is palpably breathtaking. Houses, cars and arable land flying below evoke the idea of ​​the frailty of all things. And for some reason I immediately begin to think that it’s probably right that there are no seat belts on such trains: if something doesn’t help. Especially when the overpass reaches 20 meters in height, complete associations arise with low-level flight in a helicopter (I once flew on a Ka-26 Hooligan along the coast).

AP Photo/Xinhua, Cheng Min // Train station in Wuhan, central China.

REUTERS/Stringer // Maximum speed trains 350 km/h.