CCTV9英语新闻：铁路旅客利益的变化（在线收听）

So which cities are going to benefit the most from the changed railway lines? And what is the current state of China’s high-speed rail lines? To answers those questions, joining me now in the studio is CCTV’s Jin Yingqiao.

Q1. Yingqiao, walk us through some of the key changes that happened to China’s railway system on Saturday.

A1. Certainly some are really big changes. China’s railways network topped 100,000 km on Saturday, after a couple of new rail links started operation right ahead of the country’s busiest travel period. Take a look at some of the key new lines: This is the line from Xiamen to the southern economic hub of Shenzhen. And this is the Xi’an to Baoji high-speed rail line, and also we have this high-speed line from the northern port city of Dalian to Shanghai. Now, passengers no longer have to transfer in Beijing. In total, the new lines brought an extra 2,258 kilometres of track...and it was the most number of new high-speed lines to have opened on a single day in China’s history.

Q2. This will really be more convenient for travellers... And we know China now has the world’s largest high speed railway system. Tell us more about that.

A2. China’s first independent railway was constructed in 1881 in Tangshan in north China’s Hebei Province. In 1949, there was less than 22,000 km of rail lines but only half of that was operational. After years of development, China now has the world’s third largest railway system, just behind the United Sates and Russia. But when it comes to high speed rail, it leads the world. China Railway Corporation says China has 10,000 kms of high-speed rails, which is about half the world’s total. And according to the national railway network plan, high-speed rails will reach 19,000 km by 2015. And by 2020, total railway mileage will top 120,000 km.