Campaign to raise the speed of railway travel in China

In 1993, commercial train service in China averaged only 48 km/h (30 mph)[1] and was steadily losing market share to airline and highway travel on the country's expanding network of expressways.

The MOR focused modernization efforts on increasing the service speed and capacity on existing lines through double-tracking, electrification, improvements in grade (through tunnels and bridges), reductions in turn curvature, and installation of continuous welded rail.

[2] A notable example is the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, which in December 1994 became the first line in China to offer sub-high speed service of 160 km/h (99 mph) using domestically produced DF-class diesel locomotives.

These include the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang (Qinshen) Passenger Railway, which was initially built for 200 km/h trains when completed in 2003 and then upgraded to 250 km/h during the Sixth Speed-up Campaign, and sections of the Qingdao-Jinan (Jiaoji), Shanghai-Kunming (Hukun) (between Shanghai and Zhuzhou), Guangzhou-Shenzhen (Guangshen), Beijing-Shanghai (Jinghu), Beijing-Harbin (Jingha), Beijing-Guangzhou (Jingguang), Longhai (between Zhengzhou to Xuzhou) Railways.

Upgrade work continues on other lines including the Wuhan-Danyang (Handan), Hunan-Guizhou (Xianggui), and Nanjing-Nantong (Ningqi) Railways.

The building of the fourth line of the Guangshen Railway (pictured here in Feb. 2007) allows faster passenger train traffic to be separated from slower freight traffic. It is one of the earliest examples of a passenger dedicated line.