Chinese high speed rail covers more than rest of world combined

[File photo: IC]

The picture above will be an unfamiliar sight to British train users – trains which actually go fast.

That’s because the UK’s train network, the oldest in the world, is also undoubtedly one of the worst.

The country has just one high speed rail line, measuring 67 miles in length.

In order to put that figure in context, other European countries fare significantly better:

Italy has 605 miles of high speed lines, France has 1644 and Germany has around 3,000 miles including some routes which use a mix of fast and traditional lines.

All of those pale into significance, however, when compared to China, which has a staggering 16,000 miles of high speed tracks, a figure which is set to rise further in the next few years.

The good news for the United Kingdom is that Chinese expertise in high speed rail could soon be helping Britain.

That’s because China, and Chinese companies, are said to be ‘very interested’ in playing a part in the future of the UK’s rail networks.

Indeed, the British press have predicted that trains running on HS2, the railway project that’s set to slash journey times between London and Birmingham, could be operated by Chinese companies.

The Sun, for example, wrote that Chinese firms are ‘leading the race’ to operate the line, whereas The Times suggested that such companies are ‘in the driving seat’ of the project.