In 1993, commercial train service in China averaged only 48 km/h (30 mph) and was steadily losing market share to airline and highway travel on the country's expanding network of expressways. In 1997 the MOR begoan focusing on modernization efforts on increasing the service speed and capacity on existing lines.
Today, China is the first and only country to have commercial high-speed train service on conventional rail lines that can reach a top operational speed of 350 km/h (217 mph).
High-speed train in China refers to any commercial train service in the People's Republic of China with an average speed of 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph) or higher. By that measure, China already has the world’s longest high-speed rail (HSR) network with about 7055 km (4,383 mi.) of routes in service as of September 2010, including 1,995 km (1,240 mi.) of rail lines with top speeds of 350 km/h (220 mph).
China's high speed rail lines consists of upgraded conventional rail lines, newly-built high-speed passenger designated lines (PDLs), and the world’s first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation (maglev) line - They Float.
China's HSR network is undergoing a building boom. With generous funding from the Chinese government's economic stimulus program, 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) of high-speed lines are now under construction. The entire HSR network will reach 13,000 kilometres (8,100 mi) in 2012.
Click the below link for a full album of images. ::db/news/New/2012-01-25_0056__china high speed rail::
Sit back, Relax, It's The End Of the World
The global middle Class
For the first time in history, a truly global middle class is emerging. By 2030, it will more than double in size, from 2 billion today to 4.9 billion.
Brookings Institution scholar Homi Kharas estimates that the European and American middle classes will shrink from 50 percent of the total to just 22 percent. Rapid growth in China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia will cause Asia’s share of the new middle to more than double from its current 30%. By 2030, Asia will host 64% of the global middle class and account for over 40% of global middle-class consumption. ::db/news/New/2012-01-24_0848__global middle class::
Sit back, Relax, It's The End Of the World
Low wage America
The U.S. government creates many low-wage jobs without realizing that the current economic system does not allow for a high rate of capitalization on these workers. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston explains the problems with an increasing rate of low-wage jobs that are being created in America.
::db/news/New/2012-01-24_0752__low wage america::
Sit back, Relax, It's The End Of the World
It's all about the hat
An odd casuality of the Mexico Drug Wars - Police stand near a motorcycle helmet containing a human head and topped with a foam hat with the writing "Happy 2012" placed outside a house in a residential area in Morelos, Mexico, January 16, 2012. (Photo on right)
For more photos from Mexico's drug war click link below: ::db/news/New/2012-01-21_1317__mexican drug hat::
Sit back, Relax, It's The End Of the World
Toddler lost in urban sinkhole
A normal weekend stroll with her one-and-a-half year-old son turned tragic for a young mother in the western Russian city of Bryansk, when the ground opened up under her feet.
Tatyana Didenko, 26, and her only son Kirill fell into a sinkhole on a busy street in Bryansk Sunday. The woman was saved by her husband Vladimir Didenko, a traffic police officer – someone called him shortly following the accident, and he was not far from the scene. “He pulled his wife out, she caught the edge of the ditch and held on,” witnesses said. “But he couldn’t manage to save the child,” they added.
Tatyana was taken to hospital in a state of shock, but the boy – who slipped out of his stroller and fell four meters into the ground – was not immediately found. Divers and emergency ministry rescue workers searched for the toddler for 28 hours, but had little hope of finding the boy alive. His body was recovered more than a day later, in a sewage collector some distance away from the accident site.
Emergencies Ministry officials say a drainpipe must have burst, pushing so much water through the ground that it created the massive hole.
The region's governor promised compensation to the Didenkos. ::db/news/New/2012-01-10_0708__child falls in sinkhole, dies::
China high speed rail
