China plans to invest US$113 billion this year to expand its railway network

China will invest 732 billion yuan (US$113 billion) this year to expand its railway by 4,000 kilometers so that by 2025 the country will boast a 175,000-kilometer network.

China Railway, the nation’s state-owned railway company, said that 3,500 km of the new network are high-speed railway. The network will cover most of the cities by 2025, of which high-speed railway will total 38,000 kilometers, the national railway operator said today.

Although the budget is below last year’s investment of 801 billion yuan, China is still expected to lead the world in developing a modern railway network by 2035, the operator said.

By the end of last year, China had 127,000 km of railway lines, including 25,000 km of high-speed rail – 66.3 percent of the world’s total by length.

The operator said that 60 percent of the railway will be double-track – which helps ensure safety and enhance efficiency by running one track in each direction instead of making trains in both directions share the same track – and 70 percent of the network will be electrified by 2020.

China now leads the world by proportion of electrified railway and is No. 2 by the number of double-track rails, according to peoplerail.com, the official railway news portal.

In 2017, a total of 3.04 billion passenger trips were made on railways, up 9.6 percent year on year. More than 56 percent of those trips were made on high-speed railways.