maybe...not so far to reach top of this eage of ASIA map every border...
inter trend and train...soooo fastttt....
World warming to greener train travel
- Many countries investing in rail travel as efficient and green transportation
- Rail travel is three to 10 times less CO2-intensive compared to road or air transport
- China has been one of most aggressive investors in rail travel and high-speed network
- Cost concerns remain most important for most people
(CNN) -- Take more trains and fewer planes. That's what Sarah Kendrew pledged to herself a few years ago. An astronomer at the Netherlands' Leiden Observatory, she travels frequently to nearby countries on business -- and prefers to not leave vapor trails in the sky when doing so.
"I've been making a conscious effort to take trains rather than fly," she told CNN, "for environmental reasons initially, but I've also found them to be much more comfortable and convenient -- so it's not really an effort anymore."
Faced with global climate change, many around the globe -- from governments to companies to individuals -- have also warmed to train travel.
Traveling by rail is on average three to 10 times less CO2-intensive compared to road or air transport, according to the UIC, a Paris-based international organization of the railway sector.
Among governments, China has been especially aggressive, spending heavily on its emerging high-speed nationwide rail network.
In December 2009 it launched a line between the cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou that cuts travel time from over 10 hours to within three, putting pressure on domestic airlines.
With an average speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the energy-efficient train is faster than its peers in Europe and Japan and makes the Acela "Express" service in the U.S. (long woeful in rail) seem more like an amusement park tram.
Meanwhile the Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2020 passengers will be able to travel faster point-to-point by high-speed rail than by plane on nearly half of Europe's densest air routes.
Correspondingly, impressive new train stations are sprouting up around the world. There's Beijing South, for instance, which evokes traditional Chinese architecture with its upwardly curved roofs.
In London's renovated St. Pancras station -- which manages to feel Victorian yet perfectly modern -- passengers bound for Paris on Eurostar can flirt at a romantic champagne bar that's over 90 meters long and has become a city landmark in its own right.
The firms hired to design these stations and manufacture the trains have benefited enormously from rail's rising stock.
Take Montreal-based Bombardier, for instance. While its aerospace division has struggled, its train subsidiary, Bombardier Transportation, has been surging. The subsidiary promotes the green benefits of rail travel at a web site addressed, unsubtly, http://www.theclimateisrightfortrains.com/. Judging by its revenues -- they rose $254 million to $2.5 billion for the quarter ending October 2009 -- the name is justified.
--Melanie Francis, Greenpeace
Recent contracts have included $383 million from Italy's Trenitalia, $431 million from Germany's BVG, and $4 billion from the Chinese Ministry of Railways. In the latter deal, Bombardier (in a joint Chinese venture) will supply 80 trains capable of reaching 380 kilometers per hour.
Operators, too, are promoting rail's green cred. A television ad in Norway starts with animated flowers choking on car exhaust fumes and ends with customers riding contentedly with Norwegian State Railways.
"I live and work in Europe and I am seeing a lot more advertising of the use of trains as a green choice," says Melanie Francis, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace International based in Amsterdam.http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/10/green.trains/index.html
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