High-speed rail stays on track (2)

As for whether the ministry should build so many high-speed railways in only a few years, Wang Mengshu, a professor at the Research Center of Tunnel and Underground Engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University and a deputy to the NPC, said that forming a network in a relatively short period can generate more profits than laying out the railways one by one.
And the quick speed of construction is not likely to affect quality as the key to safety is the rail track, and China has overcome difficulties to make sure the tracks stay where they are for years so that trains will not derail at high speeds, he said.
Zheng Xinli, former deputy director of the policy research office of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that with the growth of the network and people's income, high-speed railways will gradually attract more passengers and eventually begin to make a profit.
By then, paying back the huge debt will not be a problem, Zheng said.
The country has planned to expand its high-speed rail network to 13,000 km by 2012 and to 16,000 km by 2020.
At the end of 2010, the network was already the world's longest at 8,358 km, of which 5,149 km were put into service in 2010.
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