China to Inaugurate World's Highest Railway Line

[eastside]

Today, July 1, China will begin operations on the controversial Qinghai-Tibet Line.

[bobwilcox]

Here is a list of China's line construction plans as of May, 2005. You can find out more at http://www.railwaysofchina.com/news.htm . Doubling means turning a single track line into a double track line.

Yantai - Dalian train ferry as part of a route from the northeast to the Yangtze delta

Wenzhou - Fuzhou. This is part of a route round the coast from Shenzhen to Ningbo

electrification of the Shanghai - Hangzhou line

the new main passenger station at Guangzhou

a high speed pax line from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan. This is part of a new line from QIngdao to Taiyuan.

a high speed pax line from Wuhan to Guangzhou, part of a high speed line from Beijing to GZ

new inter-city line between Beijing and Tianjin, promising departures every three minutes

doubling of the Chengdu - Kunming line

doubling of the Nanning - Kunming line

a new line from Liuzhou to Zhaoqing on the SanMao

doubling of the Liuzhou - Guiyang line

doubling of the Huaihua - Chongqing line (? this is a new line)

doubling of the Guangzhou - Zhanjiang line - this would involve doubling the SanMao

a line to Burma from Dali (?)

a line to Laos from Kunming

rebuilding the metre gauge Kunming - Hekou line

a line from Lanzhou to Chongqing

an extension of the Longchang - Luzhou line south to Huangtong(?) between Guiyang and Liupanshui

a line from Xian to Pingliang(?) on the line from Baoji - Zhongwei

a line from Taiyuan - Zhongwei through Suide

Longgang (east of Dunhuang on the LanXin line) - Golmud

Golmud - Korla

Hami - Linhe (west of Baotou on the BaoLan line)

Altay (far north of Xinjiang) - Kuytun (between Urumqi and Alataw)

a line from Kashgar (Kashi) - Kyrgyzstan

a line from Jinghe (near Alataw) - Yining (Gulja) near the border with Kazakhstan (that's enough stans)

doubling of the Urumqi - Alataw line

doubling of the Turpan - Korla line

doubling of all / part(?) of the BaoLan, and from Lanzhou on to Golmud

doubling of Baotou - Xi'an

completion of high speed pax lines Beijing - Harbin, Tianjin - Qinhuangdao, and Shenyang - Dalian

high speed pax line Beijing - Shanghai

new pax line Xuzhou - Lanzhou (generally following the route of existing LongHai line)

new Nanjing - Wuhan - Chongqing - Chengdu pax line

new Hangzhou - Changsha pax line (generally following the ZheGan line)

doubling of the WanGan (Wuhu - Yingtan) line

doubling of the Hefei - Xi'an section of the NingXi (Nanjing - Xi'an) line (this is a new line)

[zardoz]

BEIJING - The first train service to Tibet opened Saturday on the world's highest railway, an engineering feat protesters say could threaten the restive Himalayan region's environment and Buddhist culture.

Chinese President Hu Jintao cut a giant red ribbon at a nationally televised ceremony in the western city of Golmud as the first train left for the Tibetan capital of Lhasa carrying 600 passengers. Musicians in Chinese and Tibetan costumes banged on drums and cymbals.

Minutes later, state television showed a second train pulling out of Lhasa traveling toward Golmud. A third train was due to leave Beijing for the Tibetan capital later in the day.

"This is a magnificent feat by the Chinese people, and also a miracle in world railway history," Hu said. He said it showed China's people were "ambitious, self-confident and capable of standing among the world's advanced nations."

The 710-mile rail line crosses mountain passes up to 16,500 feet high and large stretches of ground that is frozen year-round. Specially designed train cars have oxygen supplies to help passengers cope with the thin air and window filters to protect them from ultraviolet rays, while high-tech cooling systems keep the railbed frozen and stable.

The $4.2 billion train project is part of the Chinese government's efforts to develop poor, restive areas in China's west and bind them more closely to the country's booming east.

Its opening coincided with a major political anniversary — the 85th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party.

But activists complain the railway will bring an influx of Chinese migrants, damaging Tibet's fragile ecology and diluting its unique Buddhist society. They say most of its economic benefits will go to migrants from the east.

On Friday, three women from the United States, Canada and Britain were detained after unfurling a banner at Beijing's main train station reading, "China's Tibet Railway, Designed to Destroy."

Protests were planned Saturday outside Chinese embassies around the world.

Chinese officials acknowledge that few Tibetans are employed by the railway but say that number should increase. The government also says it is taking precautions to protect the environment.

Xinhua lashed out at critics on Saturday, calling them hypocrites who want Tibet to remain undeveloped and a "stereotyped cultural specimen for them to enjoy."

"Why shouldn't Tibet progress like the rest of the world?" the commentary said.

The railway, sometimes referred to as the "Sky Train" in Chinese, is projected to help double tourism revenues in Tibet by 2010 and reduce transport costs for goods by 75 percent, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Until now, goods going to and from Tibet have been trucked over mountain highways that are often blocked by landslides or snow, making trade prohibitively expensive.

Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and Beijing says the region has been a Chinese territory for centuries. But Tibet was effectively independent for much of that time.

Chinese officials have wanted to build a railway to Tibet for decades but were put off by the engineering challenges.

The project was launched in earnest in 2001 after engineers decided they could deal with the high altitude and temperature extremes of the Tibetan plateau. In some places, crews building the line worked at such high altitudes that they were forced to breathe bottled oxygen.

The railway's highest station will be in Nagqu, a town at 14,850 in the rolling grasslands of the Tibetan plateau.

According to Xinhua, the highest point on the line is the Tanggula Pass at 16,737 feet, which the government says is a world record. Peru's Lima-Huancayo line claimed the highest record previously, rising to above 15,748 feet.

[eolafan]

This line was featured in an article in the Chicago Tribune this morning along with a photo of a train on the line with about four units...the units (at least from the cab door back) looked somewhat like EMD F-40 units. Did EMD or its successor build these units for the Chinese?

[eolafan]

Whoops, I whould have waited a day more for my new edition of TRAINS to come in the mail, as it had an article on China and U.S. railroading and had a picture of a new G.E. passenger unit testing on the Moffat Line out west and it is destined for China...question answered...thanks anyway.

[eastside]

Here are some vidcaps of the GE C38AChe locomotives in action on the Qinghai-Tibet line.





A tasteful looking livery, IMO.

BTW, if you look closely, the test locomotive on p. 35 of the August 2006 Trains has a jury-rigged stack. Is that for the analysis of the stack gasses?

[greyhounds]

What freight is this 710 mile line going to haul?

[bobwilcox]

QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds

What freight is this 710 mile line going to haul?

Yak fat and tanks.

[samfp1943]

One has to hope that that TRAINS will be the first industry magazine to carry a story with lots of photos of this new line. The scenery has to be spectacular.
Hopefully, the Chinese will be more open to access from outside the region, than they have inb the past.
Maybe Yak Fat and Tanks will not be the only cargo.

[bobwilcox]

I think more articles on China's railroads would be great. On several trips I've found the railroads to be fabulous with there millions of passengers, rapid expansion and busy lines.

[eolafan]

We are all impacated by the economics of China and the Pacific Rim nations (each and every one of us) and we would all do well to be more informed...thanks TRAINS!

[Anonymous]

There is a very good article in this month's(July) Wired Magazine on some of the high tech solutions used to build this Railway over permafrost. It was extremely tricky to do and many wonder if it will work for more than ten years because of rising temperatures in the area. It is so high in elevation that each seat on has an oxygen port so the passengers do not pass out. Bombardier built the cars at the rate of one a day for the last two years. They really did nothing small or inexpensively on this one.

Really an amazing feat.

[samfp1943]

QUOTE: Originally posted by emmaandy

There is a very good article in this month's(July) Wired Magazine on some of the high tech solutions used to build this Railway over permafrost. It was extremely tricky to do and many wonder if it will work for more than ten years because of rising temperatures in the area. It is so high in elevation that each seat on has an oxygen port so the passengers do not pass out. Bombardier built the cars at the rate of one a day for the last two years. They really did nothing small or inexpensively on this one.

Really an amazing feat.

emmaandy is right, the article by David Wolman is a railfan delight, a cab ride into Lhasa,[8D] and info on how the Chinese crews work.
I no nothing about "Wired Magazine" but this article is worth the read.[tup][tup]
Here is a direct link to the article in the July issue:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/chinarail.html
Enjoy!

[eastside]

Here's a nice picture of the GE locomotives pulling a Q-T Line train:


To see the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

[BellmoreBob]

Did General Electric build the locomotives in Erie? Is a later part of the order going to be built or assembled in China (as New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority would require of Kawasaki)??
Would someone decode the designation C38AChe?
I presume C means two three-axle trucks.
I presume AC means alternating current.
Many thanks.

[Anonymous]

Chinese solders to kick the Dali Lamas monks butt by the trainload....
This is a military railroad.