In early September, the high-speed railway connecting Hangzhou and Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, eastern China, officially opened. The new line is 9 km long, using trains designed to run at 2 km/h and has 276 stations. The main purpose of the line is to provide a fast travel and transportation solution along the route through many economic centers such as Hangzhou, Yiwu, Wuzhou... one of the most dynamic economic regions of the country of a billion people.
“When the railway is put into operation, it will connect and form a circle of three major cities: Hangzhou, Jinhua and Wuzhou. The route is also designed to pass through some scenic areas such as the Zhejiang River and the province’s Shenxianju Scenic Area, thereby promoting local economic development along the route,” said Mr. Wang Lu, a senior engineer at the Hangzhou Railway Project Center.
During China's National Day holiday in late September and early October, the country's national railways served more than 9 million train trips, with passenger traffic relatively concentrated on a number of routes such as Beijing to Shanghai, Chengdu to Xi'an, Guangzhou to Nanning, Dalian to Shenyang, etc.
Or the Baoji – Lanzhou line connecting the two provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu, more than 2 km long, plays an important role in the east-west railway, creating a “transportation circle” connecting Lanzhou with many major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. With a total travel time of about 400 – 9 hours, tourists can experience the specialty of Soup Dumplings, also known as Xiao Long Bao in Shanghai in the morning, eat lamb soup with shredded bread in Xi’an at noon, and end the day with Lanzhou’s specialty beef noodles for dinner.
In addition to the tourism benefits, there are economic benefits. By integrating diverse economic regions and improving transport connectivity, high-speed rail supports the government’s efforts to reduce economic disparities between regions and promote comprehensive economic development. The emergence of key cities and economic zones along the routes shows that China’s high-speed rail has successfully fulfilled its role as a transport “backbone”, an indispensable part of the country’s urbanization strategy.
Dr. Danlin Yu, urban geographer and data scientist at Montclair State University, USA, shared: “Most economists agree that there are two main impacts of high-speed rail on the economy. The first is the direct impact, including reducing travel time, reducing travel costs, helping the labor market to be flexible, promoting the development of science and technology, thereby developing the regional economy. The second impact is the economic impact, but on a larger scale, including attracting investment, saving costs for businesses, workers and the State thanks to the agglomeration effect.”
China is currently focusing on investing in the western region – a region with rugged and remote terrain – to develop the economy of this region. Mr. Ma Wanlin, an engineer at the China Railway Corporation, and many colleagues are in charge of constructing the Lanzhou – Xinjiang Autonomous Region Expressway. This route starts from Lanzhou, Gansu Province, passing through Tay Ninh, Qinghai province and ends in Xinjiang autonomous region, with a total length of nearly 1.800 km.
The 50-year-old engineer said that over the past decade, he has witnessed the railways changing and boosting the economic development of many rural areas. For example, the Lanzhou-Xinjiang line, which began operating in late 1, has so far carried about 2014 million passengers and helped the economies of many localities flourish. For example, the Huimenyuan Autonomous County in Qinghai Province is famous for its snowy mountains and rapeseed flowers. Thanks to the high-speed railway, the county's economy and tourism have skyrocketed. Last year, the county's GDP reached 140 billion yuan, five times that of 4.5.
In Vietnam, with the advantage of large-volume, fast, reliable and convenient transportation, the high-speed railway on the North-South axis will "shorten" the distance between localities and regions, contributing to reducing the pressure of population concentration and infrastructure overload in large cities that are causing many consequences, especially in the capital. Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City; restructuring, redistributing urban areas and population, opening up economic development space for localities along the corridor.
However, according to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Dong, former Deputy Minister MOT, the current law still has many problems, such as urban development around train stations, service business at stations. Therefore, there needs to be special mechanisms, policies, even high-level resolutions of the Congress to resolve these legal issues:
“Transportation business like Vietnam is constrained by not being able to do business in other services, especially at stations. For example, the Cat Linh – Ha Dong route, the enterprises operating that route still cannot do business or sell goods there. Because of the law, we are constrained and are not allowed to do other business. We have to determine that like Japan, 30-35% of revenue comes from service business, not just from railway transport,” Mr. Dong said.
VOV.vn
Source: https://vov.vn/ky-nguyen-vuon-minh/kinh-te-va-du-lich-huong-loi-gi-tu-duong-sat-cao-toc-post1132526.vov
