Siemens and Tangshan Locomotive Plant were reported to win a bid together in 2005 to manufacture 60 locomotives with a designed speed of 300 kmp for the railway ministry. Of these, three locomotives will be entirely imported from Siemens, and 57 will be domestically made.

Siemens was also reported to have won a contract together with two other Chinese companies to provide signal, telecommunication and electricity supply systems for the high-speed rail.

In order to promote economic integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China plans to build a two-hour circle to cover major cities in the Bohai Rim Region. A total of 710 kilometres of inter-city rail lines will be built in the region's inter-city rail network before 2020.

The Beijing-Tianjin inter-city passenger rail will serve as an axis in the regional rail network, to meet the soaring demand of travel between the cities.

At present, the municipalities, each with a population over 10 million, are linked by highways, expressways and rail. The current railway is under pressure, handling 25.55 million passengers each year.

The new passenger rail line is expected to handle 32 million passengers in 2008 and 54 million passengers in 2015.

At present, there are also three expressways under construction that will link the two cities.

1

2

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)