The further increase of train speed on April 18, for the sixth time and on a large scale, heralds a new era for China’s railway transportation. As a result, the Chinese railway system has edged its way into the world’s leading countries of advanced railway technology.
“The higher price of the newly introduced domestically made CRH (China Railway High-speed) trains at 200 km/h and up, identified in timetables by the initial letter “D,” are attributed to a series of factors such as the state of the art technology，the enormous cost on research and development，and the fast speed and the superb service. However，the Ministry of Railways will consider bringing down the train fares according to market fluctuations,” remarked Wang Yongping， the spokesman from the Ministry of Railways.
According to Wang，the Ministry of Railways, based on its market predictions, is making preparations for the forthcoming May Day Holiday transportation rush. Therefore it is foreseeable that the speedup for the sixth time will alleviate during the “Golden Week" the pressure on ticket purchasing for train travels to some extent.
During the period of the 11th Five－Year Plan，China will add 17，000 km length of railways, with the total reaching 100，000km by the year 2020. By then the purchasing of tickets will be made much easier. The current speedup to over 200km/h is a break through on the basis of China's maximum speed of 200km/h and over on the existing railway routes，which is the highest speed of trains currently operating in the world. This means there will be no more large-scale speed-up on China's existing railway lines.
It was reported that the first high－speed bullet train at 300km/h is scheduled to roll off the production line by the end of the year.