Experiencing thirty years of China's rail and metro development

However, rapid economic growth was putting considerable strain on the railway network right through to the mid 2000s. The system was based on conventional track, meaning freight, the green trains and a limited number of faster services all ran on the same rails. Incredibly it worked but capacity was reaching a maximum. Introducing the latest trains operating with advanced computer technology on dedicated tracks where no freight services would compete for space was, for China, a uniquely new approach. This has resulted today in the world’s most extensive high-speed network and has radically changed the concept of rail travel offering levels of comfort unheard of even a few years previously.