« Opportunities For Innovations | Home | Lean Means Sustainability – Step 3 – Analyze »
London – Beijing In Two Days – By Train!
By Claus Schafhalter | March 22, 2010
China is actively planning a high speed rail connection to Europe. This impressive infra-structure investment would be financed by China’s huge trade surplus, while countries connected by the new line would pay preferably delivering natural resources to China’s hungry manufacturing plants.
As it is planned right now, the high speed rail line would link China, India and Europe with trains running at speeds of 320 km/h. Another line would run from China through Russia and then connecting to Western Europe’s high speed rail network.
According to press releases a trip from London to Beijing would take about two days. In comparison a direct flight from London to Beijing takes about 13 hours.
There are many aspects to consider evaluating a project like this. On the one hand it would be a huge infrastructure investment covering countries that could use a boost for their economies. From a sustainability point of view trains are much cleaner to operate than airplanes. On the other hand if construction is done without regard to the environment the sustainability calculation could look pretty awful.
And of course China does not have the best record when it comes to acquire and process raw materials. Indirectly there could be a huge danger.
What I am wondering though is why do these bold ideas come from Asia, and not from the more developed Western countries. Are we too slow to compete with China?
Claus Schafhalter, Management Consultant with Sunogos Inc.
Topics: News, Sustainable Technology | No Comments »