BizAims

With the goal of introducing a million green cars by 2015, the United States also looks forward to invest in a high-speed rail network. To get the work started the U.S. gives away $8 billion. At the same time the fastest developing economy in the world, i.e. China, looks forward to invest about $300 billion in its project to develop a high-speed rail network by 2020, and thus to create the most developed train system in the world. According to the plan, People's Republic of China hopes to create 16,000 miles of new rail track in 11 years. It would need 117 million tons of concrete only to be able to build the buttresses that would hold the tracks. The train traveling from Beijing to Shanghai will reach an average speed of 220 miles an hour, which would decrease the travel time by four hours. In 2009 the goal of China Railway Company is to hire 20,000 young specialists to start working on the project.

Huge Goals

Up till now the project to build a high-speed rail track between Beijing and Shanghai employed around 110,000 workers. It is worth mentioning that Chinese government will spend most of its stimulus money on this project. The other important goals include the construction of new airports, highways and a number of environmental buildings in the country, such as water treatment plants. Meanwhile the number one goal, the Beijing-Shanghai project, is expected to fulfill two main goals: it will increase the country's employments rate, which is a very important factor during the global economic crisis, and improve the rail in China, which for a long time has been considered an important objective.

The new high-speed trains that will be launched in China will not show much better results compared to trains that run in Europe. There will be a total of 35 train lines, with trains traveling at an average speed of 125 miles an hour. The overall length of the tracks will be about 6,800 miles. China hopes to complete its plan by 2012. The first step will include the creation of five most important routes, three of which will run from north to south and two will run from east to west. The average speed of trains will range between 217 and 236 miles an hour. It is worth mentioning that in 2008 People's Republic of China spent $44 billion, which is a huge increase compared to 2004, when the country spent $12 billion on rail.

Economic Development and Recovery

While the United States is still awaiting the approval of plans to create rail systems that would connect San Francisco and Las Vegas with Los Angeles, China is expected to become the nation with the biggest and most technologically advanced rail system on the planet and the majority of high-end technology that will be used to achieve the goal is brought from overseas. For examples, Bombardier, a company from Canada, is developing the signaling systems on 40 trains.

The economy of China registers a great development, and investing in infrastructure proves to be the main tool that drives the economy up. Although Chinese exports decreased as a result of the economic recession, the country's steel production capacity registered a ten to twelve percent increase over the last year. It seems that the development of a highly developed train system represents one of the main features that would help China  recover from the unpleasant situation that occurred as a result of the global economic slowdown.

To note that besides hoping to become the nation with the most developed rail system, China also looks forward to become the leading country in terms of the number of electric and hybrid vehicles driving within its boarders. Its command economy administration increases the speed of implementation of big projects, allowing the country to show a greater development compared to the United States. Currently China seems to be on the right track, with concrete and steel industries working at full speed, creating just enough material for the development of the rail system.