Image Courtesy: Wang Wei Issue Map VIII THE HIDDEN STORY BEHIND CHINA’S RAILWAY BOOM – A TAKEAWAY FOR INDIA Pratosh Menon Intern, Chennai Centre for China Studies October 5 2019 About the Author Pratosh Menon is a final year high school student based in Singapore. He has represented and won awards for his schools in quizzes, math competitions, debates, and conferences and generally ranks at the top of his class in academics. Passionate about animal rights, the environment and new technologies he hopes to be able to develop revolutionary solutions that help change human behavior and the way we use resources to stop the harmful impacts on the environment. About C3S The Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S), registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act 1975 (83/2008 dated 4th April 2008), is a non-profit public policy think tank. We carry out in depth studies of developments relating to China with priority to issues of interest to India such as geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics of India-China relations, Chinas internal dynamics, border issues, Chinas relations with South Asian countries, prospects of trade, the evolution of Chinese politics and its impact on India and the world, ASEAN and SAARC relations, cultural links, etc. C3S attempts to provide a forum for dialogue with China scholars in India and abroad and give space for the expression of alternate opinions on China related topics. Additionally, events, lecture discussions and seminars are organised on topics of current interest. What is an Issue Map? C3S launches its Issue Map initiative. The reports under this series analyse the status and developments of current scenarios in detail. They attempt to aid the reader to get a more comprehensive idea of the issue being addressed through a detailed illustration in the form of images, data and facts. Issue Maps are available for download as PDFs. Introduction China currently has over 31,000 km1 of high-speed track, accounting for two-thirds of the global high- speed railway network. Although such large-scale development by a developing country has led the China Railway (CR) raking up over US$ 700 billion dollars2 in debt, it brings to the table a plethora of wide-ranging benefits for the country. The greatest advantage the growth of HSR (high speed rail) has provided China – is the fact that working in cities has become cheaper. With cities being far more expensive to live in as compared to rural areas, high-speed rail has enabled individuals to live in the more affordable regions surrounding the main cities. This has facilitated not only the growth of surrounding rural communities and towns, but has also increased production in the city. For example, although Shanghai has a population of 22 million3, HSR has enabled over 75 million people to be within an hour’s commute (the cost of second-class rail passes is far less than the additional rent one is forced to pay in China’s tier-1 cities). The cost of the cheapest high- speed railway pass is works out to only US$ 5.70 a trip4. Given the average worker will take approximately 400 trips a year – the annual money spent in commuting sums up to US$ 2280. The money saved in living in a neighbouring city like Jiaxing, more than compensates for the money spent on the train-trips. Given India’s discrete political and economic situation, replicating such a project will certainly be a herculean task. However, India has much to gain from another story hidden deep within China’s railway growth over the past two decades – the improvement of traditional (non HSR) train services. The average speed of long-distance passenger trains in India on the whole has not really changed from the 1960s. There is still enormous scope for the Indian government to adapt existing infrastructure to meet the growing number of passengers. Interestingly China’s railways in the early 1990s were similar to India – low punctuality and trains boasting an average speed of just 48 km/h. Today, the average speed of Chinese passenger trains is 93 km/h, which for reference is faster than almost every passenger service in India. INDIA: Average speed of a passenger train in India today: 50.6 km/h5 Average speed of a passenger train in India in 1993: 46.4 km/h6 Increase in speed for India since 1993 ~ 9% CHINA: Average speed of a passenger train in China today: 92.8 km/h7 Average speed of a passenger train in China in 1993: 48.1 km/h8 Increase in speed for China since 1993 ~ 93% Interestingly, the annual amount the Chinese government invested into improving and maintaining non-high-speed rail services was similar to the amount allotted by the Indian government for the Railways. To this end, the Chinese government invested US$ 26 billion during the fiscal year 2018-19, whereas the Indian government invested US$ 23 billion. However, since only 1.4 billion passengers9 use non high-speed trains in China compared to the approximately 3.6 billion for India10, it should be noted that the amount invested per passenger is over two and a half times that of India. Though in the grand scheme of things this data is somewhat misleading, noting that passenger traffic on trunk lines in China is in fact 8% more than that in India. The contra-distinct conditions the two railways find themselves in today can be primarily attributed to the different pathways they followed from the early 1990s. While India focused on improving top speeds of coaches and designing new, more powerful locomotives, China took a different path – focusing on the development of existing track and signalling infrastructure. On the point of India and coach speed, it should be noted that the transition from ICF coaches to LHB coaches has been the corner-stone in India’s drive for speed, since such a transition would result in increasing the maximum operational speed of passenger trains from 110 km/h to 130 km/h*. However, only 8% of total running track in India supports speeds in excess of 110 km/h. Interestingly, the top speed for the majority of passenger trains in China is very similar at 120 km/h+. This research aims to study why non-high-speed passenger trains in China have become much faster and efficient in comparison with India despite being technologically very similar. The research takes into account the feasibility of looking into the replication of China’s railway maintenance and development given the fact that non-high-speed rail infrastructure in China sees similar funding to that in India and has levels of technological development comparable to existing Indian rail infrastructure. The paper will cover four key points which highlight the cause to such a discrepancy – China’s signalling reform and a comparison with India’s current signalling system Track maintenance in the two countries Differences in train scheduling The effect of freight train services on passenger services in the two countries China’s Signalling reforms – Railway signalling in China: On the 1st of April 1997, the government initiated the China Railway Speed Up Campaign (中国铁路大提速) which was led by Yan Ming, Chief Professor of Southwest Jiaotong University. By the end of the 1st Speed Up Campaign out of six, the average speed of a train rose from 48.1 km/h to 54.9 km/h11. An integral part of the campaign was to improve the signalling technology, allowing trains to have shorter headway times amidst growing passenger traffic. From 2004, China successively removed the traditional fixed block signalling system and installed the Chinese Train Control System (CTCS), based on the European Train Control System (ETCS). Today, all of China’s signalling systems are based on CTCS. Such systems* do away with cab signalling (no physical signals are present beside tracks); instead trains communicate with fixed radio stations and the train behind and ahead to ensure they are running at a safe speed. *There are various levels of ETCS/CTCS. Today most of China’s railways are fitted with CTCS levels 2,3 and 4. CTCS Level 2 works as a digital radio-based system. Movement authority and other signal aspects are displayed in the cab for the driver. Apart from a few indicator panels, it is therefore possible to dispense with trackside signalling. However, the train detection and the train integrity supervision still remain in place at the trackside. Train movements are monitored continually by the radio block centre using this trackside-derived information. The movement authority is transmitted to the vehicle continuously with speed information and route data. Positioning beacons are used and the distance between two positioning beacons, the train determines its position via sensors. The positioning beacons are used in this case as reference points for correcting distance measurement errors. The on-board computer continuously monitors the transferred data and the maximum permissible speed. The driver is then able to proceed at the speed which the system says is safe to travel at. CTCS Level 3 is similar to that of CTCS Level 2, except Balises are used instead of track- side circuitry. (Equivalent to ETCS Level 2) CTCS Level 4 varies from the above by eliminating radio-block centres and allowing trains to directly communicate with one another. Therefore, the speed of trains varies depending on the speed of the trains ahead and behind it. This is similar to ETCS Level 3, which is still in development. However, China has already implemented CTCS Level 4. Reference: Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. (2019). European Train Control System. [online] Available at: https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/1055017 [Accessed 12 Jul.