Chinese group wins Hungarian rail project

[bikkuri bahn]

Nov 25 A consortium led by China Railway Group (CRG) has been awarded a 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) contract to build the Hungarian section of a railway linking Budapest with Serbia's Belgrade, in China's first high-speed rail win in the European Union.

Three firms - CRG's China Railway International Group, a subsidiary of national operator China Railway Corporation and the Hungarian State Railways - will form a consortium to construct the 160 kilometre route, CRG said in a statement on Wednesday.

The railway, which will be 350 kilometres long with the Serbian portion, will be completed in two years and will be able to accommodate trains travelling up to 200 kilometres per hour, it said. The Chinese firms will account for 85 percent of the consortium, it said, without providing further details.

 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/china-hungary-railway-idINL8N13K1YF20151125

[miyakoji]

Not just in the EU, but is this their first high speed project anywhere outside of their own territory?  Further down the article there's an interesting bit about flexibility in the funding, provided Chinese suppliers are used.

 

I wonder how much cheaper they are than Japanese and French products/services.  Trains moving at 100s of kph aren't something to mess with, I'd go with experienced consultants or nothing at all.  Even the French, who've been at this for 35 years now, had a very unfortunate accident just this month with a test train.

[bikkuri bahn]

I read somewhere that there is no cost advantage in terms of building materials, construction equipment, and the like.  Perhaps the savings is in labor, if Chinese workers are used (as they are in projects in Africa and S. America), and administrative costs are absorbed rather than billed.

[bikkuri bahn]

a bit more info:

The project is an additional two-track linking line and electrification project of the existing railway, with the designed maximum speed of 200km/h and a designed operating speed of 160km/h.

 

http://www.railway-technology.com/news/newschina-wins-16bn-contract-to-support-hungary-serbia-high-speed-rail-4738236

 

So not really a dedicated HSL like the LGV Est, but rather of a type of higher speed line common throughout Europe (the image of the Munich-Rosenheim Line [TEN-T Line1] comes into my mind).

Edited November 27, 2015 by bikkuri bahn

[kvp]

Actually it's just a standard track upgrade and double tracking from 120 to 200 km/h with 160 km/h as a designated speed for commuters, interregio and fast freight and 200 km/h for loco hauled conventional stock like ic-s and railjets. The chinese are not really cheaper, but they'll also loan the money as the EU is not in a shape right now to be able finance the project. Most unskilled workers will be recruited by the hungarian government from the local unemployed along the route. The bidding process had the requirement that financing must be provided by the winner in the form of long term loans with a fixed interest rate. Nobody else bid on it...

 

ps: The northern portion of the line is already at 200 km/h and it was quadruple tracked a year ago as part of an EU project, but only the portion that is part of the route to Vienna and has regular railjet service. It's still a conventional line though, so while most high traffic crossings have been removed, it's still has many low traffic grade crossings with around 50% freight traffic, including high speed and intermodal freight. The line branches off to the east on the outskirts of Budapest and from there, it's gradually getting worse, first loosing double tracking, then the overhead before reaching the border. The line is currently home of the last 'rattler' diesels and their 1954 slam door push-pull stock. The line continues beyond Nandorfehervar (Beograd, Serbia) to Athens, Greece and upgrading it would build a direct heavy freight route between the port of Athens and western Europe.

[IST]

This 200 km/h is maximum a dream in Hungary, there is no part of this line that has 200 km/h speed limit.

This Chinese investment and rail line building has been continuously on the desk since years, but nothing happened. They chosed this route only because of the freight traffic, there is no bigger city next to the line in Hungary to achieve significant passenger traffic, so I am really curious what will happen in the upcoming years.

[kvp]

The article states that 200 km/h is the design speed (also on the Vienna line), but most trains have a 160 km/h speed limit, which is ok, since the line is mixed passenger / freight and commuter emu-s have a speed limit of 160 km/h, while older electrics are only 120 km/h. The Chinese project probably has something to do with the new southern freight ring that is also in planning, which would allow the current inner ring railway to be used exclusively for s-bahn purposes (and the occasional long distance passenger or sleeper), while moving the remaining freight operations out of Ferencvaros station, which is the biggest freight yard still in operation within city limits to the new intermodal terminal further south near the highway ring. This freight only ring would directly connect the Vienna line with the line to Athenes, which could speed up freight traffic between China, the middle east and western Europe and allow intermodal transshipping in any direction.

[Mudkip Orange]

Probably better to have your financing through China in view of what Europe is going to be dealing with over the next few years.

[katoftw]

I don't think China is any better.

[Mudkip Orange]

I don't think China is in any imminent danger of civil war.

[katoftw]

Europe is in the amidst of a civil war?

Edited November 29, 2015 by katoftw

[kvp]

It's not so much of a civil war as a possible sunni-shia sectarian insurgency (within the UK-French-Benelux-German-Swedish area) combined with the possibility of an EU wide far right backlash that could result in a very simple solution that involves a mass genocide within the EU. A big question is who will be the majority when this happens. The difference could mean a choice between a confederacy of slightly fascist but fundamentally christian governments or a unified islamic state of europe. Of course, the current EU government belives that this won't happen and the integration of around 20-25 million wahhabit muslims and around the same amount of siha and other non muslim immigrants is possible on the basis of the current liberal EU constitution. Many european people and most east european governments are a bit skeptic about the whole thing...

 

The chinese are optimistic and want to go forward with their investments, regardless of the facts that two borders along the planned line are currently closed for all rail and road traffic and the closing of the 3rd is already in planning as a fallback tactic. Actually they likely favor a strong and long term (possibly final) solution for the immigrant problem. However the EU central government doesn't really want this for humanitarian (and possibly other undisclosed) reasons.

 

ps: there is no war in afganistan either, it's just a long term insurgency...

[Mudkip Orange]

A big question is who will be the majority when this happens. The difference could mean a choice between a confederacy of slightly fascist but fundamentally christian governments or a unified islamic state of europe.

There's also the third option, partition.

 

If Houellebecq has it right, the Western European Left would prefer Sharia over a rerun of 1930s Nationalism. Conceivably that cleaves Europe into the Caliphate and neo-Christendom at roughly the Oder-Neisse Line.

 

In which case a Baltic-Adriatic rapid rail link becomes *very* useful.