High Speed Rail

After reading Sustainable Cities, I learned a lot more about China’s ever-expanding railway system. China currently has 19,000 kilometers of high speed railways and are set to build 30,000 more kilometers in the next 5 years. By 2020, all of China’s cities with populations greater than 500,000 will be connected by high speed railways. One of the reasons I was so fascinated in learning about China’s rail system is because much of the progress made was accomplished with the last 15 years. The first set of bullet trains only opened in 2007. While China’s effort in expanding this method of transportation has already been seen to be helping the economy, some question how all this construction is being funded. In addition, it is unlikely that such rapid development would be able to be mirrored in America since two of the main reasons China is able to lay track so cheaply is because of their cheap labor costs and the government’s ability to easily procure land.