China totaled 440.6 billion yuan (more than R$370 billion) in investments in railway infrastructure in the first seven months of this year, which represented an increase of 1.8% compared to the same period in 2025, according to data released by the China National Railways Group (GNFC) this Monday (17).
Passenger volume reached a record in the period. National railways transported 2.8 billion people between January and July, representing an increase of 4.1% compared to the same period in 2025, the highest result for this period since records began, according to the GNFC. During this period, there were 14.9 million foreign passengers, representing an increase of 32.5%.
The average number of passenger trains in daily circulation was 11,462, which means 571 more trains than in the same period last year. The railways also expanded services linked to entertainment events: 2,159 tourist trains operated during the period, including 79 customized trains for fans of musical artists and sports clubs, according to the GNFC.
Conexão Xi’an-Ankang
During this period, the Xi’an-Ankang high-speed railway also entered into experimental operation, in Shaanxi province, which will be 171 kilometers long and where the trains will have an operational speed of 350 km/h. The line crosses the Qinling Mountain Range and will reduce transport between Xi’an and Ankang from around three hours to less than an hour when it officially opens. The railway integrates two of the corridors foreseen in the national plan “eight vertical and eight horizontal axes” of high-speed railways.
In China, trial operation is the period of testing under real conditions that precedes the official opening of a high-speed railway. During the phase, the operator travels the itinerary with the times planned for regular service, carries out emergency exercises and checks the capacity to receive trains at stations before authorizing the movement of passengers.
The new projects have prioritized connections between neighboring cities and within metropolitan regions. In Guangdong, in the country’s southern region, the opening of Foshan Station on the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railway reduced the journey between Foshan and Guangdong from more than an hour by car to 20 minutes by train, according to information from GNFC.
China has the largest high-speed rail network in the world. At the end of 2025, the national network totaled 165 thousand kilometers in operation, of which more than 50 thousand km were high-speed, representing more than 70% of this type of railway. The GNFC projects that the network will reach 180 thousand km by 2030, with 60 thousand km of high speed.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
