The Competition of Passenger Transport and the Increase of Passenger Train Speed in China: A Review and Prospects

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the current situation of passenger transport competition among modes, the progress of increasing the competitive capacity of Chinese Railways (CR) , mainly by raising the speed of passenger trains, and possible future developments. The first part describes the past and current situation of passenger transport in China, from the market in which the supply, dominated by rail, did not satisfied the demand to the market in which the supply which is becoming a little bit over the demand, due to the economic reform and open door policy adopted by Chinese Government. The situation of the passenger transport competition between different modes in different market segment in terms of tariff and service level (speed, frequency and comfortable) and change of market share, are then described. In the following section the key efforts that CR adopted to increase its competitive capacity in the passenger transport – upgrading the existing line and improving the rolling stocks to raise the running speed of passenger trains, running diversified passenger trains, increasing the frequency of passenger train, opening some passenger service market to private or non railway firm and so on – and its effects are then described. Finally, the possible future development of passenger transport in CR, in the fields of competition, ownership and organization reform, and price deregulation, are considered.