The Chinese government plans to invest Rmb3,500bn in railway construction during the 12th five-year plan (2011-15), reported China Economic Review quoting an unnamed official from the Ministry of Railways. According to the ministry’s plan, future railway construction will focus on the refurbishment of old railways and the building of high-speed lines.

In 2015 the length of railways in China will total more than 120,000km and include 30,000km of new track.

Wu Xiao, deputy director-general of the National Development and Reform Commission’s basic industries department said that, as a proportion of overall transport infrastructure investment, spending on railways would increase by a large margin while the amount expended on road construction would fall.