Relax - China tests 500 km/h super high-speed train

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China tests 500 km/h super high-speed train

Reuters | Wed, Dec 28 2011

The train is designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword: report.

China tests 500 km/h super high-speed train

Keywords

railway

bullet train

China launched a super-rapid test train over the weekend which is capable of travelling 500 kilometres per hour, state media said on Monday, as the country moves ahead with its railway ambitions despite serious problems on its high-speed network.

The train, made by a subsidiary of CSR, China's largest train maker, is designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

It "will provide useful reference for current high-speed railway operations", it quoted train expert Shen Zhiyun as saying.

But future Chinese trains will not necessarily run at such high speeds, CSR chairman Zhao Xiaogang told the Beijing Morning News.

"We aims to ensure the safety of trains operation," he said.

China's railway industry has had a tough year, highlighted by a collision between two high-speed trains in July which killed at least 40 people. Construction of new high-speed trains in China has since been a near halt.

In February, the railways minister, Liu Zhijun, a key figure behind the boom in the sector, was dismissed over corruption charges that have not yet been tried in court.

Last week the official Xinhua news agency reported that China's railway ministry would cut its annual railway investment by 15 per cent in 2012 to 400 billion yuan (S$82 billion).

Slower investment could reduce financial strains on the heavily-indebted Railway Ministry, China's largest bond issuer after the treasury and with outstanding debt of 2.23 trillion yuan as of the end of September.

Railway infrastructure investment directly accounted for only about 3 per cent of China's overall capital spending in 2010.

To support the cash-strapped sector, Beijing has cut taxes for buyers of the Railway Ministry's bonds between 2011 and 2013.

Xinhua said the Railway Ministry would start construction of 6366 kilometres of new train lines in 2012.