China continues to expand the reach of its railway system. (Photo : Getty Images)
The second largest economy of the world intends to further expand its railway system, according to an official from the Ministry of Transport.
The additional rails will be for high-speed trains. There will be 11,000 kilometers for high-speed trains and the rest will total to 30,000.
"We will accelerate the construction of railways in central and western parts of China. We will also boost the expansion of intercity and suburban rail links," he said.
The National Development and Reform Commission issued a national railway development plan that intends to build a 175,000-kilometer network by 2025.
According to the plan, China's train network covers 125,000 kilometers of railway as of 2015. About 19,000 kilometers of this is high-speed.
China's railway system accounts for 60 percent of the world's total train network.
There are a total of 5 billion passengers have traveled daily. When the line opened between Beijing and Tianjin, the trips increased by 30 percent.
The director of Institute of Logistic Economics at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Wang Xianquing, said that the government sees high-speed railways s strategically important to the industrial boom of the country.
"We will accelerate the construction of railways in central and western parts of China. We will also boost the expansion of intercity and suburban rail links," he said.
China is now developing a next generation bullet train that can run as fast as 400 km per hour, according to Jia Limin, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University.
The new generation train can adjust its wheels to fit any kind of gauge, which means that the train can travel to any kind of network in the world.
