In February, China opened a 505 km (313 mile) high-speed rail line between the nation’s important interior city of Xian and the major eastern rail-hub city of Zhengzhou.  Trains travel 330 kph (205 mph) and cut the travel time from six hours to less than two.  China has also opened a 664 mile (comparable to a Boston to Southern Virginia trip) high-speed line from the southern export city Guangzhou to the major interior city Wuhan, which makes the trip in just over three hours, less time than it takes for Acela to travel from Boston to New York.  (China Daily, 2/6/10; New York Times, 1/13/10)

These ambitions and early successes lead us to ask several questions: 1) What companies benefit from China’s full-speed-ahead plans to build a massive high-speed rail network?  2) Where does China’s plans and capabilities leave the U.S. in terms of fast, efficient and reliable transportation infrastructure?  3) What are the social implications of this increasing mobility in China, a place of limited mobility just a few years ago?

Michael Hines