World’s longest high-speed railway network gets longer

China put 581km (361 miles) of new railway lines into service in the first four months of the year, Xinhua reported on Tuesday, citing data from China State Railway Group. This includes 358km of high-speed railway, data shows.

The country saw 157.46 billion yuan (over $23.21 billion) in fixed asset railway investment in the period, up 0.6% year-on-year, according to the group.

China has been actively promoting the implementation of rail projects among the 102 major projects listed in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan. Analysts say Beijing is speeding up investment in infrastructure to curb the nation’s economic slowdown.

The government plans to extend the length of China’s high-speed railway network, already the longest in the world, to 50,000km (31,070 miles) by 2025. The network will be 12,000km longer than at the end of 2020.

READ MORE: Russia, China to boost freight rail traffic

The country’s high-speed railway extended to 38,000km at the end of last year, which was 8,000km longer than the target set by Beijing in 2017.

Chinese rail cargo volume rose 10.1% on a yearly basis, hitting a record high of 330 million tons in April, earlier data showed.

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