Railway system of China Gr: sbi – 2 St: Tenglashov S

Railway system of China

Gr: SBI – 2

St: Tenglashov S

Rail transport is an important mode of long-distance transportation in China. As of 2021, the country had more than 150,000 km (93,206 mi)[a][5] of railways, the second longest network in the world.[6] By the end of 2021, China had more than 40,000 kilometres (24,855 miles) of high-speed rail (HSR), the longest HSR network in the world.[6][7]

Almost all rail operations are handled by the China State Railway Group Company, Limited, a state-owned company created in March 2013 (as China Railway Corporation) after the dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. It was converted into a joint-stock company and placed under the control of the Ministry of Finance in June 2019.

China's railways are the busiest in the world. In 2019, railways in China delivered 3.660 billion passenger trips, generating 1,470.66 billion passenger-kilometres and carried 4.389 billion tonnes of freight, generating 3,018 billion cargo tonne-kilometres.[1] Freight traffic turnover has increased more than fivefold over the period 1980-2013 and passenger traffic turnover has increased more than sevenfold over the same period.[

Driven by need to increase freight capacity, the railway network has expanded with the country budgeting $130.4 billion for railway investment in 2014, and has a long-term plan to expand the network to 274,000 km (170,000 mi) by 2050. China built 9,000 km of new railway in 2015.

The first recorded railway track to be laid in China was a 600-metre long miniature gauge demonstration line that a British merchant assembled outside the Xuanwumen city gate at Beijing in 1865 to demonstrate rail technology.[11] The Qing government was uninterested and had the line dismantled. The first railroad to enter commercial service was the Woosung Railway