[CN] China massively overbuilt high-speed rail ?

[latestnews]

China massively overbuilt high-speed rail ?

Lu Dadao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences warns that oversized, underused HSR infrastructure has ignored basic economic logic, weakened public finances, and derailed regional planning.

Lu Dadao, a prominent economic geographer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, critiques China’s high-speed rail (HSR) expansion as excessive and economically irrational. He argues that the state-led drive for vast HSR networks—peaking at ambitions for 70,000 km by 2035—was marked by overinvestment, corruption, and disregard for market demand.

Lu contends that much HSR construction, especially outside populous city pairs or key corridors, ignores basic economic logic, as many lines have insufficient passenger volumes to justify their high costs or specialized infrastructure. He criticizes the “Great Leap Forward” tempo of approvals and construction as undermining public finances, distorting regional planning, and favoring grandiose projects over integrated, systemic transport solutions suited to local needs.

Lu insists HSR is economically defensible only between megacities or densely populated clusters and advocates recalibrating China’s transport strategy toward coordinated planning, management, and diversified investment grounded in economic fundamentals and actual usage.

Article: https://www.pekingnology.com/p/china-ma ... high-speed Accessed 2025-07-20

The text introduces an in-depth and critical analysis of China’s high-speed rail (HSR) development by Lu Dadao, a highly respected economic geographer and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Lu, born in 1940, holds one of China’s highest academic honors and has led significant national planning projects, contributing extensively to land use and regional development policies. He participated in drafting key national development plans and has repeatedly advised the Chinese government through influential reports. For years, Lu has warned against overbuilding highways, railways, and airports, notably criticizing China’s transport infrastructure program in a 2010 government report and facing official resistance as a result. He also advised top Chinese leadership on urbanization. The article, published on June 15, 2025, on a WeChat blog affiliated with leading CAS institutions, outlines Lu’s latest and most comprehensive critique of the economic rationale, planning, and consequences of China’s HSR expansion.

[Parrahub1]

HSR with steel rail is last century technology as it cannot replace trucks and planes on major routes.