Beijing Shanghai Fast Rail Links

A high-speed railway that will cut travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to around four hours will open in June, a year ahead of schedule, state media said Tuesday.

China also plans to invest 700 billion yuan (106 billion dollars) in railway construction this year, railways minister Liu Zhijun was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying.

Work on the fast rail linking Beijing and Shanghai started in April 2008 with a planned investment of 220.9 billion yuan. The line was originally scheduled to open in 2012.

Once operational, the line is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year -- double the current capacity on the 1,318-kilometre (820 mile) route, which currently takes 10 hours, previous state press reports have said.

China's high-speed rail network will reach 13,000 kilometres this year compared with 8,358 kilometres at the end of last year, Liu said.

Beijing previously announced a rail development programme aimed at increasing the national network to 120,000 kilometres by 2020, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.

But Liu said the goal would be achieved in five years after the total length of the country's rail network reached 91,000 kilometres at the end of 2010

Japan offers to Fund Part of US High speed Rail Projects

Japan has offered to fund part of a project to build an ultra-fast train line between Washington and New York, which would revolutionize travel on the US east coast, a Japanese official said Friday. In talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara proposed that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation would fund a portion of the first phase of a project to bring Maglev trains to the US, said Satoru Satoh, the Japanese embassy press attache. The pro

Gulf Arabs on Track With Rail Network

Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf partners are driving to develop a railroad grid across the Arabian Peninsula that would reduce the strategic threat to their exports of oil, gas and other resources. The plan is to link the oil-rich region's network to Jordan to connect it to the rest of the Arab world and even Europe through Turkey. That's a grandiose version of the Hejaz Railwa

China claims new train speed record

China's railways ministry said Friday that one of its passenger trains had broken a world speed record, travelling at 486.1 kilometres per hour (301 mph) in a test run, state media reported.

The feat -- a record for unmodified conventional commercial trains, according to the ministry -- was achieved on a stretch of track between the capital Beijing and Shanghai, the Xinhua news agency said.

State television showed footage of the white train cruising through the countryside.

"It not only marks a milestone in the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, but also is a major achievement of China's technological innovation," ministry spokesman Wang Yongping was quoted as saying.

China is rapidly expanding and upgrading its railway network amid increased pressures on its transportation system, with plans to have 120,000 kilometres of track by 2020.

The railway authority said in July that China would spend about 120 billion dollars to nearly double the country's high-speed rail network by 2012.

Earlier this year, the ministry announced that the high-speed line linking Beijing and Shanghai would open in 2011, a year ahead of schedule, cutting travel time between the two cities from 10 hours to four, state press said.

Once operational, the line is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year -- double the current capacity on the 1,318-kilometre route, the China Daily reported in March, citing railway officials.

During a trial run on September 28, a Chinese high-speed train had set a record of 416.6 kilometres per hour on a run between Shanghai and the eastern lake city of Hangzhou, Xinhua said.

In 2007, an experimental version of France's high-speed TGV train, equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, hit a speed of 574.8 kilometres per hour on a specially prepared track.

Argentina child survives under train

BUENOS AIRES: A minor girl in Argentina had a lucky escape after being caught on the tracks as a train arrived at a Buenos Aires platform.

A woman and a child walking down onto the tracks just moments before a train arrived at the Liniers train station on Tuesday.

The woman quickly jumped back onto the platform as she saw the approaching train but the child seemed to disappeared underneath the platform just before it arrived at the station.

Startled commuters quickly rushed to the scene.

According to the train company, the child managed to find cover in a little hole underneath the platform and was rescued after the station personnel cut off the power of the train and took her out from underneath the carriages.

While it was not immediately clear why the child walked down to the tracks, Buenos Aires Trains said that it is a frequent practice for people to walk out of the stations, stepping down from the platforms to the railways, to avoid paying the train ticket.

The company could not confirm if the woman who was with the child was arrested by the police, nor the identity of the woman.