China's railway operating mileage exceeded 160,000 kilometers!

On September 14, with the opening of the Meizhou West to Longchuan West section of the Longlong high-speed Railway, China's railway operating mileage exceeded 160,000 km, including more than 46,000 km of high-speed rail, an increase of 64.2% and 392.2% over the end of 2012, respectively.

 

On September 14, with the opening of the Meizhou West to Longchuan West section of the Longlong high-speed Railway, China's railway operating mileage exceeded 160,000 km, including more than 46,000 km of high-speed rail, an increase of 64.2% and 392.2% over the end of 2012, respectively. The scale, quality and modernization of China's railway network have been significantly improved. The main indicators of passenger and cargo transportation, scientific and technological innovation, energy conservation and environmental protection, and safety performance rank among the top in the world.

​ Comprehensively, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, focus on serving and supporting the Chinese-style modernization, focus on the mission and task of the national railway in the new era and new journey, accelerate the construction of the "six modernizations" system of the railway, strive to promote the high-quality development of the railway, and make historic achievements and historic changes in the development of the railway industry. It has contributed railway power to comprehensively promote the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese modernization.

 

First, the scale and quality of the road network have made a major leap, and the operating mileage and commercial operation speed of high-speed rail have ranked first in the world. China National Railway Group actively serves the national strategy and regional economic and social development, and promotes railway construction with high quality and efficiency. A large number of major railway projects have been put into operation. After the opening of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed Railway, Hong Kong has been connected to the national high-speed railway network, and after the opening of the Lalin Railway, the history of railway blocked in southeast Tibet has ended. China has built and operated the world's largest high-speed railway network and advanced railway network, narrowing the distance between time and space, promoting intra-city effect, accelerating the flow of factors of production, promoting coordinated regional development, forming new urban belts, golden belts of tourism, industrial clusters and economic prosperity along the railway lines, effectively promoting industrial optimization and upgrading and sustained economic growth. Become a strong engine for promoting high-quality economic and social development. Since 2012, China has invested 9.65 trillion yuan in railway fixed assets, and built and put into operation 66,000 km of railways, 38,000 km of which are high-speed railways. The growth rate of railways and the operating length of high-speed railways is much higher than that of railways in major countries in the world. At present, railways cover 99% of the country's cities with a population of more than 200,000, and high-speed railways cover 96% of the country's cities with a population of more than 500,000, and the network density and per capita railway ownership have increased significantly. China's high-speed rail mileage ranks first in the world, more than the rest of the world's high-speed rail mileage combined, and China is the only country in the world to achieve commercial operation of high-speed rail at 350 km/h.

Second, the passenger transport capacity and service quality have been greatly improved, and the main passenger transport indicators such as the number of passengers sent and the number of passengers turnover have ranked first in the world. China Railway Group has always adhered to the people-centered development idea, continuously improved passenger transport capacity and service quality, and achieved a historic transformation from bottleneck-restricted transport to gradually adapted transport, which has injected strong momentum to serve the people's convenient travel and accelerate China's modernization process. At present, the maximum capacity of China's railway passenger trains in a single day exceeds 12,000, including more than 10,000 high-speed rail EMUs, an increase of 184% and 426% over 2012, respectively. On May 1, 2024, 20.693 million passengers were transported, a record high for a single day. The 12306 new generation ticketing system, which has the largest number of visits and transactions in the world, has been built, and through the implementation of Internet ticketing and electronic ticket, the history of people queuing up for tickets and riding with paper tickets has been completely ended. Bus vehicles continue to upgrade, assigned to the EMU 4703 standard group, including the Fuxing 1722 standard group, the proportion of air conditioning vehicles in the general speed bus reached 94%, an increase of 22 percentage points from the end of 2012. A series of convenient service measures such as mobile payment, self-service entry and exit, Internet ordering, silent carriages, online seat selection (shop), and aging service have been launched, profoundly changing the way people travel. In 2023, the number of passenger trips and turnover of China's railways will reach 3.85 billion and 1,472.9 billion person-kilometers respectively, an increase of 103.6% and 50.1% over 2012, ranking first in the world in both indicators, accounting for 41.4% and 51.5% of the whole society, respectively, an increase of 36.4 and 22.1 percentage points over 2012.

 

 

The third is to accelerate the construction of a modern railway logistics system, and the indicators such as cargo delivery and turnover rank first in the world. The State Railway Group has earnestly implemented the central government's decision to adjust the transportation structure and increase the railway freight volume, deepened the structural reform of the supply side of railway transportation, continued to promote the construction of modern logistics system, and improved the capacity of freight channels. It has built a number of freight trunk railways such as Haoji Railway and Waari Railway, and built an advanced and efficient collection and distribution system. Great efforts have been made to develop heavy-haul transport. The Daqin Railway regularly operates 20,000-ton heavy-haul trains, with an annual transport volume of up to 457 million tons, maintaining the world record for the largest annual transport volume of a single railway, with a cumulative transport volume of more than 8.5 billion tons. Actively promote rail transport, deepen the market-oriented reform of railway freight, optimize the supply of freight products, vigorously develop multimodal transport and whole-process logistics services, build fast logistics brands, promote innovation and upgrading of freight equipment, research and development and use of railway freight 95306 system, to achieve online railway freight business handling, greatly improving freight capacity and efficiency. In 2023, China's railway freight volume and freight turnover will complete 5.01 billion tons and 3,643.8 billion tonne-kilometers, respectively, ranking first in the world in both indicators, of which the freight volume exceeds the total freight volume of the United States and Russia, which rank second and third in the world.

Fourth, railway technology has achieved fruitful results in self-reliance and self-improvement, and high-speed rail technology has established an international benchmark. China Railway Group implements the national innovation-driven development strategy, gives full play to the advantages of the new nationwide system and the role of a leading enterprise in scientific and technological innovation, leads the establishment of the railway science and technology innovation Alliance, extensively united the superior scientific research forces of the whole society, promotes the deep integration of industry, university and research, unswervingly follows the path of independent innovation with Chinese railway characteristics, and constantly improves the self-reliance ability of railway science and technology. The overall technology level of China's railways has entered the world's advanced ranks, the technology of high-speed, plateau, high-cold and heavy-haul railways has reached the world's leading level, and the technology of intelligent high-speed railways has become fully autonomous. A large number of scientific and technological innovation achievements represented by the Fuxing EMU have been formed, and complete sets of high-speed rail technology systems covering the three fields of high-speed rail engineering construction, equipment manufacturing and operation management have been established. The Beijing-Zhangjia-Shanghai and Beijing-Xiong smart high-speed railways are the first in the world to achieve 350 km/h autonomous driving, and the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railways and other major high-speed rail corridors have achieved 350 km/h high-standard operation, setting an international benchmark for high-speed rail technology. The "CR450 Scientific and Technological Innovation Project" was thoroughly implemented, and high-speed comprehensive inspection trains equipped with 57 new technical components were able to operate at a single speed of 453 kilometers per hour on the open line and 891 kilometers per hour at the intersection. The level of network security and informatization has been greatly improved, and an integrated modern railway information infrastructure has been basically built. At present, China Railway Group has formulated 1,219 enterprise technical standards, basically forming a complete, advanced and applicable system of China railway technical standards. China Railway has presided over more than 300 UIC, ISO and IEC international standard formulation and revision projects, and all 13 system-level international standards in the field of UIC high-speed rail have been formulated under the auspices of China Railway, further enhancing the international influence and discourse power of China Railway.

 

 

Fifth, railway safety has remained stable, creating the world's safest railway system. China Railway Group adheres to the principle of putting people first and life first, coordinates high-quality development and high-level safety, promotes the transformation from accident prevention to risk prevention and control in advance, and realizes the whole-process control of safety risks. Establish and improve the inter-ministerial joint meeting on safety and environmental governance along railways, the "double section chief", and the working mechanism of road protection and joint security and stability, strengthen the comprehensive management of railway safety and environment, and create a good external environment for safe railway operation. We have increased investment in safety, deepened railway safety infrastructure, and improved the quality of infrastructure and safety management. Since 2012, nearly one trillion yuan has been spent directly on ensuring production safety by the national railways. China has made extensive use of advanced technologies such as earthquake early warning, disaster prevention and reduction, accelerated the construction of a modern and reliable railway safety guarantee system, and developed world-leading high-speed comprehensive inspection trains. It has formed professional comprehensive monitoring and testing systems for locomotive on-board safety protection (6A), public works inspection and monitoring (8M), power supply safety inspection and monitoring (6C), vehicle safety monitoring (5T), EMU fault prediction and health management (PHM), centralized signal monitoring, and integrated communication management, and built disaster prevention and mitigation systems for natural disasters, foreign body intrusion, earthquake early warning, etc. To ensure the safety and stability of the railway. Since 2012, China's railway safety has entered a relatively stable historical period, with no serious or extremely large safety accidents and responsible driving accidents causing passenger deaths. In 2023, the total number of railway traffic accidents and deaths in China have decreased by 75% and 79% respectively from 2012, making China's railway recognized as the safest in the world.

The sixth is to practice the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to the development of the world railway. Adhering to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and the principles of high standards, sustainability and people's well-being, China Railway Group has built a number of landmark projects and connectivity projects with exemplary significance, promoted economic and trade exchanges, improved people's well-being, contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the world railway development, and benefited more and more co-construction countries and people. It has made railway contributions to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. The Jakartabandung high-speed Railway has become a flagship of China-Indonesia cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. The number of EMU trains running every day has increased from 14 in the initial period to 52 in the peak period, carrying a total of nearly 5 million passengers. With both passenger and cargo booming, the China-Laos Railway has played an increasingly prominent role as an international golden corridor. The daily number of passenger trains running on the Lao section has increased from 2 in the initial stage to 10 at present, carrying a total of 273,000 cross-border passengers. The daily number of cross-border cargo trains has increased from 2 in the initial stage to 14 at present, carrying nearly 10 million tons of cross-border cargo. The Beno section of the Hungaria-Serbia Railway operated safely and smoothly, carrying more than 8.8 million passengers in total and providing high-quality transport services to the Serbian people. The number and operation quality of international freight trains have continued to improve. Since the unified brand of China-Europe freight trains in 2016, the annual number of China-Europe freight trains has increased from 1,702 in that year to more than 17,000 in 2023, an increase of nearly 10 times, and the annual value of freight transported has increased from US $8 billion to US $56.7 billion. China has actively participated in the high-level construction of the new land-sea Corridor in the West, and since the opening of the railway and sea combined freight trains in the Western Land-Sea Corridor in 2017, the annual shipment of container goods has maintained a rapid growth, and 860,000 TEU will be completed in 2023, an increase of 13.8%.

 

 

Seventh, significant results have been achieved in serving and ensuring the major national strategy, fully demonstrating the advantages of the socialist system. The National Railway Group earnestly fulfills the political responsibility and social responsibility of the national railway, gives full play to the advantages of the industry, and actively serves to support the major national strategy. We will promote high-quality railway planning and construction, improve the level of railway transport support, and promote urban-rural integration and coordinated regional development. We strengthened railway infrastructure development in old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas, and areas out of poverty. Since 2012, 5.4 trillion yuan, or 78.5 percent, has been invested in railway construction in old and old areas and areas out of poverty. 145 counties have ended their history of railway connectivity, and there are more than 1,600 passenger and freight stations serving towns and townships below. To maintain the scale of passenger trains with universal speed, ensure the inclusiveness, balance and accessibility of railway transport, and adhere to the operation of public welfare "slow trains" with low fares and stops, covering 22 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and making 691 stops. It has accurately optimized the operation of trains in poverty-stricken areas, innovated the brand of "rural revitalization train", helped the construction of the rural logistics system, and provided strong support for the construction of livable and working conditions and beautiful villages. A total of 990 million passengers and 4.53 billion tons of goods have been transported to poverty-stricken areas. We continued to implement preferential student ticket prices, and sold 616 million preferential student tickets. To serve the construction of beautiful China and promote the green and low-carbon development of railways, the green rate of China's railway lines has reached 88.7%, the electrification rate has reached 75.2%, and the energy consumption index per unit transportation workload in 2023 is 3.81 tons of standard coal/million converted ton-kilometers, which is far lower than other major railway countries.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the key reason why China's railway has made remarkable development achievements and realized the historic transformation from following up to running and then to leading is that it has the political advantage of the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which has pointed out the direction for China's railway industry to be stable and lead the world, and provided a strong political guarantee. The key lies in the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics to concentrate on big things. National ministries and commissions, local party committees and governments strongly support the development of railway undertakings. As a leading enterprise in China's railway industry, China Railway Group serves as the "chain leader" of the innovation chain of the railway industry chain and gathers the superior resources of key enterprises, universities, think tanks, scientific research institutions and other units. It has formed a strong synergy to promote the high-quality development of China's railways and blazed a railway development path with Chinese characteristics. The key lies in the management advantages of "one chess game" and "one net" of China's railway, maintaining the stability and continuity of railway planning, adhering to the drawing of a blueprint to the end, implementing centralized and unified transportation command, efficient integration and coordination of various professions, levels and types of work, which has greatly improved China's railway transportation capacity, comprehensive efficiency and modernization level.

In the next step, the National Railway Group will earnestly implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and the second and Third Plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, focus on serving the national strategy and economic and social development, accelerate the construction of a modern railway infrastructure system, railway transport service system, railway science and technology innovation system, railway security system, railway management system, railway governance system, and promote the high-quality development of railways. Take the lead in realizing railway modernization, bravely serve and support the "locomotive" of Chinese-style modernization, further consolidate and develop the world's leading advantages of Chinese railways, and contribute China's strength to the development of world railways.