500 Million to Spend on Climate Change

Rail industry leaders and experts have flown to Beijing for a meeting to discuss a greener future for the global high-speed rail network. The Seventh World Congress on High-speed Rail that will begin in the Chinese capital is also expected to strengthen international cooperation with the host country which is now speeding up the development of its own high-speed rail network. Our reporter Wang Ling has more.

China has joined the ranks of predominantly western countries that have extensive high-speed rail networks. The country has just announced a world speed record for its home-grown bullet train and now leads the world with more than 7,500 kilometers of high-speed rail lines in operation. It plans to double its high-speed network to about 16,000 kilometers by 2020.

Jia Limin, a railway science professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, says China's effort to build a high-speed rail network is driven by an increased demand for public transportation.

"We have a slacking transportation supply versus increasing demand. It has become a bottleneck for the country's economic and social development. At the same time, China has the largest group of migrants traveling between different cities, which put more pressure on the country's transportation system. "

As more Chinese cities are connected by high-speed rail, Jia says passengers will have more choices for intercity travel, and more of the country's tramways can be use to transport freight.

The rapid and efficient high-speed rail transport network is also expected to attract more resources and investment to help the country's underdeveloped regions.

With growing strength in its high-speed rail industry, China is now focusing its attention on helping to develop rail networks in other countries. The upcoming rail conference in Beijing is expected to see a number of deals between China and railway authorities and enterprises from different countries.

Jia says China's innovation in high-speed rail technology has helped the country to compete in the global market.

"China's high-speed rail lines will be the busiest and longest to meet various geological conditions and weather conditions given its large traveling population and stretched landscapes. So China has to update the high-speed rail technology to meet its own traveling conditions. And those innovations also help Chinese firms to fare against their foreign counterparts to get access to the market in countries which have similar demands, like the U.S. and Russia."

Jia says the conference is an opportunity not only for China to showcase its latest progress in high-speed rail but also to exchange views with other countries on how to find ways to achieve the sustainable development of faster trains.

For CRI, this is Wang Ling.