Archive for April, 2007

Beijing’s new No. 5 subway line which will run through the center of the city is set to start carrying passengers in September. Ding Shukui, deputy manager of the city’s rail traffic company, said construction of the subway tunnel has been completed and workers are busy building the last station. He said, ‘Trial operations begin on June 30.’

The line is 27.6-km long and runs north-to-south line runs through the eastern part of the downtown area. It starts at Taipingzhuang, north of the north fourth ring road, travels underground through the center of the city to Songjiazhuang near the south fourth ring road. It has 22 stops along the way.

It meets with Line 1, the city’s east-west subway, at Dong Dan, one stop east of Wangfujing. It links the loop line at Yong He Gong in the north and Chong Wen Men in the south. Passengers on line 5 can also connect to line 13, north Beijing’s light rail line, at Li Shui Qiao.Construction began in late 2002, and cost RMB12 billion( $1.55 billion).

Live broadcasts will be provided on televisions installed on each subway car and (many would see this as a negative point) passengers will never lose a connection on their mobile phones.
This subway has slightly wider and taller cars than current subways in Beijing and are more comfortable. They are designed to reach speeds of 80 km per hour.

Beijing currently has 95 km of mass transit rail lines in operation, of which 54.15 kilometers run underground. Another 100 km of mass transit lines, consisting of eight different routes, will begin operation before 2008.

By 2008, there will be nine lines totaling 200 km, and by 2020 the city government plans to have 19 subway lines in operation, totaling 561.5 kilometers, which could make it the largest underground rail system in the world.
Source: China View

It took thirteen years to construct, rises to five levels and is a dual-track ship lock for the Three Gorges Dam. The Three Gorges Dam is a Chinese hydroelectric river dam which spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province, China.

As of 2007, it is the largest hydroelectric river dam in the world, more than five times the size of the Hoover Dam.

The reservoir began filling on June 1, 2003, and will occupy part of the scenic Three Gorges area, between the cities of Yichang, Hubei; and Fuling, Chongqing.

The ship lock for navigating the dam is the largest of its kind in the world and is an amazing piece of construction.

Zhang Guangdou, an academician on both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, said, ‘The permanent ship lock demands the most sophisticated technology in the entire Three Gorges project. Tests have shown the lock would ensure safe navigation for ships when the water level behind the dam rises from 156 to 175 meters. This means the two-way traffic can resume on May 1, two months ahead of schedule.’

Niu Xinqiang, vice director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, said, ‘The engineering, metal structures, machinery and electronic equipment of the lifting facility for the 113-meter drop between the upstream and downstream have reached international standards.’

The installation of ship locks is intended to increase river shipping from 10 million to 50 million tonnes annually, with transportation costs cut by 30 to 37%. Shipping will become safer, since the gorges are notoriously dangerous to navigate. Each ship lock is made up of 5 stages taking around 4 hours in total to complete.

The canal locks are designed to be 280 m long, 35 m wide, and 5 m deep (918 x 114 x 16.4 ft). That is 30 m longer than those on the St Lawrence Seaway, but half as deep. The canal locks are designed to handle 10,000 ton barges. The lock,6.4 km long and costing RMB6.2 billion($775 million), started to be built into mountainous terrain on the northern bank of the Yangtze in 1994.

The four-level operation began in 2004. The lock has been restricted to one-way traffic, alternating every 24 hours, since September last year when work began to raise the beds of the two uppermost tiers of the lock from 131 to 139 meters.

The operation began on the southern route, which reopened on January 20, and work on the northern track started the same day. The Three Gorges Project is located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China’s longest and one of the country’s most important inland waterways. All of which is totally amazing.
Source: China View

China Railway Engineering and China Railway Construction, which are mainly responsible for construction and maintenance of the country’s railways, are planning initial public offerings — IPOs. Meanwhile, China Railway Express has plans for an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange which has already been approved by the railway ministry. But it has yet to apply for approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

This may be the start of a deluge. Many companies within the railway industry are thinking of an IPOs to raise funds to try and keep pacewith China’s fast expansion of railways
The progress is staggering. It is very like the canal revolution when it happened in Britain or, perhaps more appropriately, the Victorian railway boom.

In China 140 pairs of high-speed trains with a speed of 200 km per hour or faster have been running since April 18 of this year. The number will increase to 257 by the end of this year. China has joined the ranks of countries with high-speed rail services with a vengeance. It used to be we only talked about France and its TVGs. No more. China is the place where high speed trains are happening.

If you take someone from ‘a’ to ‘b’ faster, then you can increase the number of people you carry.

To be simplistic: double the speed, double the potential passenger load because the train can do the same journey twice to the earlier version’s once.

The current speed boost would help to increase passenger capacity on the nation’s 77,000-km of rail lines by 18% and cargo capacity by 12%. And, if you are a passenger, the cheering news is that travel times between major cities are then slashed by up to half.

Railway construction and maintenance will continue to expand as a multi-billion-dollar project in China. It probably needs IPOs to support it.
Source: Jongo News

According to statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission, National Bureau of Statistics and China Logistics Alliance Network, the Chinese logistics industry rose 12.5% last year, accounting for 17.1% of the total increase in the service industry.
In 2007, the total increase in logistics has continued to develop at a faster rate than the service industry and gross domestic product (GDP).

The ratio of complete logistics’ cost to the national GDP decreased to 18.3 per cent from 18.5% in 2005. These statistics support the view that the logistic industry has a steady growth in China which will, inevitably, mean higher profits.
Source: China Daily

The Sutong Changjiang Highway Bridge in east China’s Jiangsu Province over the Yangtze River is a cable-stayed bridge and will have a world record 1,088 meters main span when completed in 2008. It will be a critical link of a major transportation artery.

After the bridge is built, crossing the Yangtze River between the cities of Suzhou and Nantong will no longer be an hour-long ferry ride. Instead it will be five minutes on the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge.

The foundations were not easy. Before the piles were drilled to the depth of 395 ft, the steel casings were driven by the largest vibro hammers available. Driving was through seven different layers of ground consisting mainly medium dense to very dense fine sands. Each casing weighted 135 tons with dimensions of 9.25 ft in diameter, 230 ft in length, and wall thickness of 1″.

China Harbour Engineering, the major contractor for the Sutong Bridge, finished driving of more than 200 casings in 6 months, in itself some sort of world’s record. Let us hope they are officially commended for this amazing effort.
Source: People’s Daily Online

First to explain that the splendidly named Old Dominion is a logistics provider in the United States. Now it has gone into partnership with Cargo Services Far East, China’s largest privately owned integrated logistics provider. Together they will provide a new service operating by way of scheduled sailings from all major Chinese ports to all major U.S. ports.

Cargo Services currently operates 28 offices throughout the country with an additional 13 to be opened by the end of the year. Its headquarters are in Hong Kong.

Old Dominion in the United States will be providing integrated service into its system that includes less than truckload, truckload, container drayage and expedited offerings. Customer support will be through the Old Dominion Global Command Center.

Old Dominion’s vice president of Global Operations, Greg Plemmons, said, ‘In many cases customers with international business moving between China and the U.S. will be able to bypass the destination warehouse and expedite sold goods to their customer and to point of sale locations.

‘Our plan is to roll the service out across our network beginning in May of this year, starting with selective markets on the West Coast and working East.’
Source: Logistics Today

It seems that almost every season China raises the speed of its trains. It has now just done this for the sixth time. This is not a cheap hobby. To do it China made RMB29.6 billion investment.

According to China’s Mid- and Long-term Railway Development Plan, by 2020 the total mileage of China’s railway system will reach 100,000 kilometers. This means that RMB2 trillion of construction capital will be needed.

In the 13 years to come, China will need RMB153.8 billion of financing every year in railway construction. This is thought to be a lucrative market that will attract many foreign companies.

To put this into perspective Bombardier Transportation, the world’s No 1 maker of trains headquartered in Canada, recently said that they regarded China as their long-term strategic partner. Early in 2004, Bombardier Transportation signed a strategic partnership agreement with Chinese Ministry of Railways and the company had made a long-term development plan for China.

Earlier this year the Ministry of Railways signed a purchase agreement for 500 large-power electric locomotives with Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock that used Bombardier’s technologies. The agreement involved a total capital of RMB11.3 billion.

This year, China plans to put RMB256 billion into railway construction and Chinese railway departments intend to do it with foreign funds. The government intends to diversify investment sources for railway construction. Railway departments are making efforts to introduce more strategic investors and change some transportation companies into stock companies.
Source: China.com

The Ministry of Railways reports that most of the seats on the bullet train were occupied during the first week of its debut on China’s rail network. The China Youth Daily reported that almost 98% of the trains reached their destinations on time.

The trains, all built in China and called CRH, an abbreviation for China Railway High-speed, can travel at an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour. They are expected to boost the passenger-handling capacity of the country’s rail network by 18% and cargo handling capacity by 12%. One hundred and twenty CRH trains are expected to come into service this year but will operate only on short and medium-distance lines.

The ministry plans to add 60 trips for travelers during the coming week-long May Day holiday. An overall total of 44.5 million people are expected to travel during the long holiday by train and may reach a one-day peak of 5.1 million people on May 1. The 60 extra trips will be mainly to tourist destinations such as Guilin and Huangshan Mountain.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Emirates, the airline operating out of Dubai, has increased to 12 flights every week from Dubai and Beijing. Then, from July 1 the carrier will launch a double daily non-stop service. Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said, ‘China is the new economic powerhouse and the world is beating a path to its capital Beijing.’ And the Olympic Games are just around the corner.

Emirates will serve the second daily with an Airbus A340-300 offering 267 seats in a three-class configuration. 12 seats in first class, 42 in business and 213 in economy and 13 tonnes of belly-hold cargo capacity. When the second daily flight is added, the airline will offer capacity in excess of 3,700 seats and 180 tonnes of cargo to Beijing every week.

The UAE and the China National Tourism Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Chinese citizen outbound travel to the UAE earlier this month, which is projected to significantly increase the growth of Dubai’s tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) markets.

The fact that Emirates is now widely considered the airline to beat when it comes to luxury travel will undoubtedly help.
Source: etravel blackboard

China’s national rail-ferry network has been extended to the country’s southernmost city of Sanya, on the island of Hainan. Sanya’s inclusion comes after the completion of a 364-kilometer rail link with Haikou, capital of Hainan Province. (Note that there is ferry involved. Many puzzled queries on the Internet as to whether a railway bridge had been built between Hainan and the mainland. No. The train crosses by ferry.)
The new Guangdong-Hainan Railway is a vital part of the railway network in China now linking, by ferry, Hainan with the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, and the Nanning-Kunming Railway. At its opening this month much was made of its potential effect on tourism. Yang Zhekun, the director of the Hainan Institute of Tourism, said, ‘The railway offers travelers a secure, economical and timely way to come to Hainan, which will boost the marketing of local tourism.’

There are two major benefits. The first is tourism. In 2006, 15 million tourists visited Hainan with the figures growing at an annual rate of 24%. The second benefit is freight. The new service is expected to carry up to 10 million tons of freight a year.

Time to Guangzhou is 15 hours, Shanghai 36.5 hours and Beijing 35 hours. The renovation of the rail link to Sanya, begun in June last year, cost EMB2.3 billion funded by the provincial government and the Ministry of Railways.
Source: English People’s Daily Online