How US High Speed Rail Plan Compares to China's
Stock photo showing the "Fuxing" bullet train running on the Beijing-Shanghai Railway in Changzhou in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 21, 2017. China has the largest high-speed rail network in the world which already dwarfs proposals in the United States.
The U.S. is witnessing an explosion of interest in high-speed railways, and superfast lines are taking shape in several parts of the country, but America is playing catch-up with many countries, especially China.
In April, construction began on America's first high-speed rail line, which will transport passengers between Las Vegas and southern California along 218 miles of track. A number of other projects have been proposed, including plans for high-speed rail lines linking Dallas to Houston and Fort Worth in Texas.
These developments are no doubt stimulating aspirations for similar projects at other major hubs, such as Chicago.
However, the U.S. high-speed rail network remains a minnow compared to China, its main geopolitical competition, which boasts more miles of high-speed rail line than any other country.
According to Statista, in 2021 the Chinese high-speed rail network stretched to 25,000 miles and in 2019, 2.3 billion individual journeys were made on its lines, equating roughly 63 percent of all passenger rail travel in China.
By contrast, the U.S. has yet to open a high-speed rail line, generally defined as tracks which carry passenger trains between 124 and 220 mph.
Construction on America's first high-speed rail line isn't expected to be completed until 2028, when Los Angeles is due to host the Olympic Games.
The line is being built by Brightline West, which says trains will be capable of up to 200 mph, from Las Vegas to Cucamonga in southern California, taking a minimum expected time of two hours and ten minutes. Each train should be able to carry 500 passengers according to a Fox 11 report.
Newsweek has contacted Brightline for comment and clarification by email.
Unlike in the U.S., where private industry has a key role, in China almost all railway networks are controlled by the China State Railway Group, formerly the China Railway Corporation. In 2021, the state-run company recorded a net profit of 4.8 billion yuan, about $664 million, though it had yet to regain its pre-coronavirus figures.
The rate of high-speed rail construction in China has been phenomenal. CNN reported in February 2022 that around half the network had been completed in the past five years alone. This network is projected to nearly double again in length, to around 45,000 miles, by 2035. It already has trains that can reach a maximum speed of 217 mph on many lines.
Speaking to CNN, Olivia Cheung, a research fellow at the China Institute at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said the network isn't just connecting existing settlements but creating new ones. Referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping, she said: "His scheme is grand in that it extends beyond just simply connecting existing towns, but existing towns with new mega-towns that are being constructed from scratch."
Many of the proposed high-speed rail lines in the U.S. are in the very early stages of development and are yet to achieve final approval, with some key details unclear.
The proposed Dallas-Houston line is intended to run trains at 240 mph, using Japanese Shinkansen technology. Journey times between the two cities will be slashed to 90 minutes, according to developers. Currently the journey takes 3 hours 25 minutes by car and over four hours by bus.
The development received an endorsement in April by President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and is being developed as a collaboration between Amtrak, America's national passenger railroad company, and Dallas-based firm Texas Central.
Separately, the North Central Texas Council of Government (NCTCOG) is working on plans for a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Fort Worth, though they are still looking for a commercial partner and don't expect to complete the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process until early 2025, according to The Dallas Morning News.
House Democrat Mike Quigley is also calling for a high-speed rail line connecting Chicago to St. Louis, though no plans for such a route have been formally submitted. Notably, other than the line connecting Las Vegas to southern California, work is not expected on any of the proposed U.S. lines in the immediate future.
Speaking to Newsweek, Professor Ian Savage, an expert in public transportation at the University of Northwestern University, suggested high-speed rail makes more sense for China due to its higher population density, though he also argued there is a strong case for constructing networks in parts of Texas.
He said: "Like many transportation economists, I have been skeptical of the case for high-speed rail in a geographically large and spread out country like the United States. However, I feel that there would is a stronger case for it in the Texas triangle (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio) than in many other parts of the country. The distances are about perfect for rail travel at about 250 miles.
"So there is a bit of a paradox in that Texas may be regarded as an auto-centric state, yet the rapid population growth in recent decades, coupled with increased truck traffic, has congested the highways to a point where there is a market opportunity for high speed rail. Central Texas has been transformed from wide-open spaces to a populated and congested region."
Start your unlimited Newsweek trial