The Chinese Rail Briefing by Trains Plus

Show 08 (14 Mar 2024) - New Ideas for China's High-Quality Rail Development

In probably the most personal show yet, David Feng shares with listeners about his plans for improving the railways — from his set of 100 suggestions for the railways in 2013 (realised to significant extents) to a new list of 100 suggestions as Beijing focuses on high-quality development. (Being Swiss, this is almost like home turf!)

Show 07 (04 Mar 2024) - Beijing Subway - It's Still Expanding

The Beijing Subway is now the world's largest urban rail (city metro) network, and it's still expanding! In this show — a genuine smorgasbord of new lines and developments to come. Dongdaqiao station is becoming 4-line interchange — huge, only to be overpowered by a 5-line Lize Business Hub station! Get ready for Line 28, the CBD Line, then hop right on up to the planned Line 101 in City Hall East... as well as other new projects. Did you know Line 1 is getting a branch line, or Line 13 is being split up into two?... NOTE: Starting from this episode, updates are 10 days apart, but on fixed dates: the 4th, 14, and 24th of every month.

Show 06 (21 Feb 2024) - Soft Seat, Hard Seat - I'd Like to Return to the Classics

In this show, after a quick look at Chunyun (Spring Festival peak travel season) stats, it's all the way back to the Classics — Classic Rail — and its two categories of seated travel, Soft Seat (rare) and Hard Seat (more often seen), as well as the rather rare(-by-now) Premier Class. Although Hard Seat (and High Speed Second Class) remain the most frequently-encountered classes of travel, it's the special, and less seen, travel classes that keep it special. Finally, a brief look at two new rail hubs being made — Hefei West and a new hub in Tongzhou, far eastern Beijing...

Show 05 (12 Feb 2024) - Happy Year of the Chinese Dragon - and What's Next for China

Happy Spring Festival! In this show, we take a look at what's next for China in this new Year of the Chinese Dragon. Spring Festival rush doesn't always mean 12+ million a day... numbers drop close to New Year, and we go behind the stats on why... High Speed at 350 km/h between Wuhan and Guangzhou... it's happening later this year. Also: a new HSR line in western China promises to be a "safer" way through rugged terrain...

Show 04 (31 Jan 2024) - Chunyun Rush + Beijing Subway Plans You Might Not Know

In this show, there’s first some number crunching as China’s Spring Festival Peak Travel Season, or Chunyun, gets off to a solid start. With eight-figure digit passengers carried, day in, day out, for almost a week, people are heading back to the rails, once again. We then delve into new Beijing Subway projects less known to people... Wangjing South getting an airport express link to Capital Airport... breaking apart Line 13... and even a Subway Line 101!