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Developing China’s Ports
in chapter 1). The top 10 ports for rail-sea container shipments in 2018 moved, on average, about 3 percent of their total port container throughput by rail. A large part of the network expansion was to be in the form of high-speed passenger lines, which were expected to free up space for freight on conventional lines (Lawrence, Bullock, and Liu 2019). However, demand for conventional trains has remained higher than expected, limiting the desired increase in capacity for freight. As a result, in mid-2016, the National Development and Reform Commission released the latest five-year update to the development plan for China’s railways, revising its target upward to 175,000 route-kilometers by 2025. Most rail investment in China has been undertaken by the central government, but since the early 1990s the sector has slowly opened to new participants through joint ventures for rail development. Indeed, since 2008, all new and upgraded lines have been financed on a joint-venture basis. The impetus has been the continued lack of network capacity and the scale of the funding required to expand it. Joint ventures have generally been built and operated more efficiently and competitively than similar state-owned rail lines. The first policy document encouraging joint ventures was issued in 1992; regulations governing their development were in place by 1996. As a result, the number of joint-venture railways increased from 22 in 1995 (4.4 percent of total network length) to 170 by 2013 (39.6 percent of total length). The length of the networks in both years is specified in table 2.3. As well as operating on their own tracks, joint-venture rail companies are also allowed to operate using the national network if sufficient capacity is available. For example, the Baoshen Railway Corporation has been able to run five coal trains per day on the national network from Shenmu (Shanxi province) to Qinhuangdao Port (box 2.8). PHOTO 2.3
Bulk terminal, Port of Yantai
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