London-Beijing in two days by High Speed Train.
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...l-network.html

I just hope I live long enough to ride it!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

It all sounds wonderful, and I certainly would have a fair few trips.......but I fear it will be very expensive and for a journey to say Beijing or Singapore the majority of travellers will still fly.

High Speed Rail is a wonderful thing, but it needs to be affordable.......the new high speed trains in China are (by Chinese standards) very expensive compared to the 'classic' trains and are out of the pocket of most 'normal' Chinese.

I dont imagine a line of that length will stay clear of obstructions along its entire route for very long!! How would a driver have time to react to a blockage of any sort in regions that are so remote that only helicopters could easily reach. They would need a hell of a lot of CCTV both line side and on board trains to monitor continuously everything that is happening on and around the track and its infrastructure.

Saying that Klordger, China manages well on its line to Lhasha, high up in the plateau of Tibet (ok its a 'classic' route, but still with that isolation and altituide!)...........:)

"we would prefer countries to pay in natural resources rather than money"

to me that is a scary scary prospect

Its just a progression of the traditional Communist barter trade concept, not too scary.........