China high speed Bullet Trains travel all the way to Thailand

The Fuxing bullet train, China’s self-developed high-speed locomotive, has won the country’s top sci-tech award, setting a benchmark for high-speed trains across the world, according to the China State Railway Group, the national railway regulator and operator.

The award was revealed recently at China’s top sci-tech gathering in Beijing that combined the national sci-tech conference, the national science and technology award conference, and the general assemblies of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In December 2013, China began to develop the bullet train with fully independent intellectual property rights. On June 25, 2017, the China-developed bullet trains were given the official name “Fuxing”.

The following day, two Fuxing bullet trains made the debut by departing from Beijing and Shanghai at the same time. On Sept 21, 2017, the Fuxing trains were put into operation on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

Now there are many types of Fuxing bullet trains, ranging from the speed of 250 to 350 km/h, and with eight, 16 and 17 carriages.

By the end of 2023, a total of 1,194 Fuxing high-speed trains have been put into service, transporting 2.2 billion passenger trips. Those trains operate in 30 provincial level regions, including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Based on the Fuxing train technology, China also developed bullet trains tailored for Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia and Hungary-Serbia High-Speed Railway, contributing to the international railway development.

Now China is developing the Fuxing train with faster speed, which can reach the operation speed of 400 km/h.

Interested in capping off your trip to Hong Kong with a long weekend in Beijing or Shanghai? A new high-speed sleeper train service is making that possibility easier than ever.

Two new overnight routes connecting the city with Beijing and Shanghai entered into service on June 15, 2024.

Both trains depart Hong Kong West Kowloon Station in the evening and arrive in Beijing at 6.53 a.m. and Shanghai at 6.45 a.m., making the journeys around 12.5 hours and 11 hours respectively.

Return trips depart from Beijing and Shanghai at around 8 p.m. and arrive in Hong Kong at 8.47 a.m. and 7.29 a.m. These routes run four days a week, departing all three stations every evening from Friday to Monday.

It will be more comfortable and faster, reducing the travel time by about half, and will cover a wider range of destinations, including popular tourist attraction cities, John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said in a press statement, referring to the previous overnight train routes that connected Hong Kong with China’s two biggest cities.

Those intercity railway services, Beijing-Kowloon and Shanghai-Kowloon, launched in 1997. The train ride to China’s capital took around 24 hours while the journey to Shanghai was about 19 hours.

In 2021, also the semi-high-speed Laos-China Railway opened to passengers, connecting the southwestern Chinese commercial hub of Kunming to the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

This roughly 10-hour journey is spanning some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) that officials claim has boosted numbers of overland Chinese travelers while greatly benefiting local vendors and businesses in the tiny land-locked country.

Also with China’s help, Southeast Asia’s first bullet train began operating in Indonesia in October 2023 following years of setbacks and delays, connecting the capital Jakarta with Bandung in West Java, one of the country’s biggest cities and a significant arts and cultural hub.

Meanwhile, a second high-speed rail project is underway in Thailand, which aims to connect the Laos-China Railway with Bangkok – but is now facing further delays and mounting construction costs.

Launching in phases, the Thai government currently expects the full line to be operational by 2028. The Chinese government has not detailed a timeline.

The China-Thailand railway project is apparent, but the government faces complex financial and political challenges in bringing it to completion.

The project’s substantial costs and the potential for budget overruns must be managed carefully to safeguard Thailand’s fiscal health.

Additionally, the project raises concerns about sovereignty and influence, forcing Thailand to navigate carefully its relationship with China and other foreign partners. As a result, uncertainty surrounds the project’s progress.

Srettha’s support is a positive sign, but until concrete developments occur, the fate of the railway remains uncertain.

CNN / ABC Flash Point News 2024.