China celebrated its 40th anniversary of ‘reform and opening-up’ in late 2018. In nearly four decades, World Bank has worked closely with China on building transport infrastructure and developing policies that brought unprecedented changes to the country’s transport sector.
TransFORM interviewed ten Task Team Leader’s and Senior Specialists at the World Bank, who shared their experience in supporting China’s development of expressway network, high-speed rail network, as well as urban transport.
High-speed rail in China started with just a 113-kilometer demonstration line built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. By the end of 2018, China boasts a nationwide system of over 29,000 kilometers. High-speed rail has become a crucial part for travel in China.
In this episode, World Bank Senior Transport Specialist Martha Lawrence talked about her experience with Guiguang (Guiyang-Guangzhou) railway project and her findings riding on the train. Through talking to passengers, Lawrence finds that the Guiguang railway was made affordable to low-income people living along the line, thus opening up new economic opportunities for them. China’s experience could also provide useful reference for other developing countries planning to embrace the high-speed rail.
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TransFORM, or China-World Bank Transport Transformation and Innovation Knowledge Platform is a knowledge platform jointly developed by the World Bank and Chinese Ministry of Transport to share China’s experience and know-how gained from 30 years of developing a large national transport network.
