Liu Zhijun, vice-minister of the ministry, said during a railway construction meeting last week that preparations for the speed-up are under way, the Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday.

The target date for the speed increase to begin is October 2000. Liu stated during the meeting that the Ministry of Railways decided to follow the lead of several railways which have already upped their speeds, including Beijing-Harbin, Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai, which are the three primary railways linking northern and southern China.

In the past two years, train speeds in China have improved a great deal as the high-speed trains in the above three railway lines have been upgraded to 120 kilometres per hour, an increase of more than one-third of their prior speed.

According to Liu, the speed-up will primarily affect trains on the railway lines linking eastern and western China, especially the Longhai (Lanzhou-Lianyungang) and Lanxin (Lanzhou-Xinjiang) lines.

The Longhai railway links the northwest inland Gansu Province and eastern coastal Jiangsu Province while the Lanxin railway links the Gansu Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The railways along with the main lines will also be included in the speed-up, but the exact speed of the trains will depend on the infrastructure and will be decided by the local railway administration bureau.

The speed-up is expected to play an important role in propelling the local economy in the form of cutting short cargo transportation time and quickening the flow of merchandise.

Headed by the above railway lines, the rest of the country will also see speedier trains, thus completing an accelerated railway network that will come into being across China.

The ministry has stated its goal to stop economic losses within three years from 1998. This year was vital to its plans.

The increased speeds have stirred up anticipation that the improvement will lead more passengers to the railway transportation industry.

Last year, the railway network carried 926 million passengers, 7 per cent of the nation's total passengers, down from 997 million in 1992. The improved road and airway transportation services have grabbed more market shares of the transportation industry.

(China Daily)