[photopress:tgv.jpg,full,alignright]It is indicative of the interest that China has in high speed trains in that it has entered into two contracts with Alstom, a French company which is at the cutting edge of the technology for ultra-high speed trains.
With these trains, because you are going from city center to city center, any journey under 300 kilometers is ALWAYS quicker than flying unless you have a private jet. In many cases, the distance can be as long as 500 kilometers. And with the new security precautions even this figure could be extended.
Patrick Kron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alstom, has signed in Beijing two contracts for a total amount of more than 350 million euros (US$460 million or RMB3,614 million) with the Chinese Ministry of Railways, for the manufacturing of electric freight locomotives and the electrification of a high speed line.
The first contract is to build 500 electric freight locomotives in conjunction with China’s Datong Electric Locomotives. The second contract is to electrify a high-speed line between the cities of Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan.
Source: CargoNews Asia and research