World news

The Shinkansen program is on again

The Japanese government decided to speed up the application of the program concerning the building of high-speed lines as part of economic upheaval of this country. After the approval of the budget for this year, works will be started again on two important sections of the Shinkansen route.
The first line - Hokuriku Shinkansen is actually and extension of the railway between Nagano and Toyama on the Sea of Japan coast and the second is Kyushu Shinkansen from Nagata to Nishi Kagoshima.
On both sections, construction works started in 1991 and although in January 1998 the government approved new sections to be worked on, they were not completed due to the economic recession.
The 1991 projects envisioned the construction of both sections of the coast of Japan, the Hokoriku line and the south part in Kyushu Shinkansen but only as Super Express lines.
This compromise was now abandoned and both lines will be built respecting the Shinkansen standard. The Japanese Minister of Transportation approximates that both routes will be opened in 2012.

The Silk Road in actuality

By the end of this year construction may begin on the railway that will link Central Asia to China in a reiteration of the celebrated Silk Road. The Kergistan Parliament approved last December the crossing of their country and decided the said line should be considered the main priority in the field of railway infrastructure.
The tripartite, inter-governmental commission that reunites representatives of Kergistan, Uzbekistan and China reviewed the initial project with the aim of attracting foreign investors into this enterprise.
On January 11, Erin Massadykov, the manager of the Kergistan State Agency that is in charge of this project estimated that 600 km of this route (between Jalal-Abad and Balykchi) will be ready by 2005. The costs will be covered in approximately 30 years.
Massadykov expects substantial benefits from this construction especially on the Kazarman - Balikchi section. Presently, for the transport of freight between Jalal-Abad and Balykchi a detour route is used a fact that is costing Kergistan almost 50 million dollars per year.

Reform in regional transport in France

Starting with January 1st, 2001a law should come to power that will change the way regional transport is managed in France.
Up till now, the regional transport was partly funded by the government, through SNCF (French National Railway Company). After the revision of the current management system, a decision was taken to stop payments from the state to SNCF for the management of regional transport and the money be used instead for regional authorities. With the exception of seven pilot regions where changes have been implemented since 1997, SNCF received grants for the smooth operation in all other regions and was also responsible for the quality of services.
From 2002, the regions will take over this task by signing contracts with NCF as sole operator. Funds allocated by the government will be used to pay SNCF for its services both locally and regionally.
That is why these regions will have, according to this new law, the obligation to manage public transportation. The provisions of this document exclude Isle-de-France and Corsica.
Senator Hubert Haemel drew the transport project of the Urban Solidarity and Reorganization Act (SRU).
In 1997 the first regions followed experimentally the initiatives of Haemel. The general idea was to organize and finance every region locally. The results were encouraging and SNCF was also at an advantage due to the increase in the number of trains and this led to new contracts aimed at the development of rolling stock material.

Restructuring the railway in Kazachstan

Until 2003, as the government of this Central Asian republic announced, the railway network will be restructured and partly privatized. Ablai Myrakhmetov, the General Manager of KTZ announced that four companies would be formed of which two will end up as private. This will create the “disposability of the railway to face demands of the market economy,” Ablai Myrakhmetov stated.
He is hoping to increase investments in Kazachstan by 2 billion dollars in the next 14 years. Some 800 million of these will be used to modernize the infrastructure and the rolling stock park. Over 300 millions will be used to improve the passenger transport conditions.

Current Chinese projects

One of the most important projects of the Chinese Railway, an integral part of the five-year plan starting in 2001 is to build a high-speed, 1.300-km long line between Beijing and Shanghai. Aside from this project that attracted the interest of a large part of the mass media there are also others that will expand and improve the capacity of the Chinese railway which has now over 68.000 km.
Fu Zihuan, the Chinese Railway Minister announced during a press conference in Beijing that the part of the project for 2001 would cost 55 billion Yuan. Until 2005 almost 100 billion Yuan will be sent for this railway in the western part of China. After these works will be completed, the railway network of China will be richer by 2000 km. The most recent opening for a line was this year on January 8th when 267 km of railway between Xi’an and Ankang were given to the public in the Shaanxi province in the west part of China. This electrified line has a major importance because it opens a fifth route between the north and south of the country and relieves other lines from extraneous traffic. Built on a single file, with a capacity of 20 million tones of freight per year, the traffic will increase considerably along with the second line opening.
In December 2000 the construction of the Chongquing-Chengdu, 621 km long line, in the south east of China. The work will be finished in 2006 and the costs are almost 20 billion Yuan.
An even more ambitious project is the one that will build a railway that will cross the Himalayans and will reach the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The project includes four alternative routes and the final decision will be taken in March. The project needs the use of special technologies in order to build the railway network on the frozen lands at 4000 meters altitude. Other difficulties are represented by the opposition of human rights associations that argue the line will allow Chinese military fast access to the area, although the same organizations admit that such a railway will also benefit the Tibetans. There are hopes the project will be finished I seven years.
Another national project is the high-speed train Blue Arrow developed by the Zhouzhou Locomotive Works Company that entered tests on January 8th on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen line with a speed of 200 km per hour.

Silvia Mitulescu reporting