Central and East Asia

by Michael Frewston

  Other areas where China has ambitions to spread its technological expertise internationally in high-speed railway construction include proposed and actual new lines into Pakistan (see above), Thailand (via Bangkok), as well as Burma (Myanmar), and Cambodia (via Vietnam), with an eventual link to Singapore, using the town of Kunming as the ‘crossroads’, with lines reaching out in all directions. Naturally these lines will be to 1435 mm Standard gauge, and not, say, metre-gauge, which is the gauge in these countries south of Kunming in South East Asia (see Part 6).

  Electrification is a key component in the drive to modernise and expand China’s existing railway system. That has meant a huge investment in the electrification of China’s ‘legacy’ railways. Only electric traction can develop the power necessary for speeds beyond around 220 km/h. China has said it will have over 70 000 km of electrified route distance by 2020, representing some 60% of its planned total route distance of 120 000 km, and accounting for 80% of all passenger and freight traffic within the country.

  Narrow gauge:

  I have already mentioned the Kunming metre-gauge railway that once connected with Vietnam. Today it is but a shadow of its former self, with passenger operations long terminated, and reports that the whole line is on the point of closure. Plans for a Standard gauge light railway through Kunming, as well as making Kunming a new centre for high-speed lines into neighbouring countries to the south and east (see above), mean that there is little likelihood of the last 30 km or so of metre-gauge operations lasting much longer.

  China has a number of other narrow gauge lines, although today (as far as can be ascertained) only eight are still operational. Those eight are now using diesel or electric traction, rather than steam. Many of these narrow gauge lines were 750 mm gauge lines built by German interests (totalling some 3600 km), while there were a handful of 762 mm and 600 mm gauge lines, such as the coal mine railways at Shibanxi, Shanhetun, and other locations.

  Trams and metro:

  With car ownership in China a relatively recent phenomenon, China can boast quite a few metro systems, though nothing like to the extent seen in Russia, the CIS and Eastern European countries, where widespread car ownership is also fairly recent. Tram systems, on the other hand, are relatively few and far between. Almost (but not quite) all systems in China are to Standard gauge, like the main-line railways.

  The cities of Beijing, Changchun, Chengdu, Dalian, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, Wuxi and Xi’an have 1435 mm gauge metro systems that are already open, most within the last twenty years or so, and many within the last two or three years, such has been the speed with which China is developing its infrastructure. Hong Kong has both a light rail line and a metro, both of which are actually part of, or connect to, the main-line railways, and therefore you will occasionally see a freight train in between the commuter trains!

  Although Hong Kong’s system is well integrated, it actually uses two (albeit only marginally) different gauges. The East Rail Line, West Rail Line, the Ma On Shan Lines as well as the light rail lines do use true 1435 mm Standard gauge. All other lines (such as the Tseung Kwan O Line and the Airport Express Line) use the fractionally smaller gauge of 1432 mm. Quite why is unrecorded. In practice the 3 mm difference is of no consequence where any through running takes place, which does happen, such as where the Airport Express and the parallel Tung Chung Line share the same rails for short distances as part of the MTR.

  Standard gauge metros are under construction or existing systems being extended in Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Kunming (ultimately 5 lines, replacing the metre-gauge railway – see above), Macau, Ningbo, Suzhou, Xian and Zhengzhou. No doubt this list will be out of date within the next 12 months!

  There are not many tram systems in China, considering that it is the most populous nation in the world. There are just two 1000 mm gauge heritage systems, in Anren and Shanghai, while Beijing has a 1435 mm gauge system – a revived heritage system, re-opened in 2009, including replications of the original vehicles, some 43 years after the original system, first opened in 1924, was closed in 1966.

  Shanghai’s old tram system, to metre-gauge, closed in the early 1970s, but was re-opened in 2001.

  The city of Shenyang boasts a newly opened (2013) Standard gauge 3-line tram/light rail system, replacing an earlier system closed in 1973. It will be the longest in China, at nearly 60 km. Short stretches are without overhead wire, where the trams will operate on battery power.

  A new ‘tram’ system in Shanghai has recently been opened – to the smallest ‘gauge’ possible: 0 mm! It uses the French Translohr system, consisting of rubber-tyred trams running on a concrete surface (which can be a dedicated alignment or part of the roadway), and guided by two 45° angled flanged wheels bearing against each side of a specially profiled central steel rail embedded in the surface. These wheels are also used for current return. The same system is also to be found in Tianjin (as well as the Standard gauge metro mentioned above).

  Hong Kong of course has its famous double-decker trams, some dating from 1904, which are to 1067 mm gauge, a unique gauge in China, and reflecting the territory’s original British origins. All are 4-wheeled. I have travelled on these trams, and they are an exquisite (and remarkably cheap) way of viewing the city.

  Finally, we must not forget Hong Kong’s Peak Tram – a short (1.4 km) funicular railway, built to another unique gauge to be found in this part of the world: 1520 mm, and not 1524 mm (5 ft 0 in), as might be expected for a ‘legacy’ line dating from Hong Kong’s colonial British past (and which was the original gauge as far as is known). The reason for this gauge change is possibly because the whole system was rebuilt in the late 1990s by a Swiss company, who likely, as the USSR did some thirty years previously, rounded the original 1524 mm down to an even 1520. The trams are hauled by a single cable, replaced every five years.

  Rising over 430 m on its 1400 m journey, it represents a gradient of around 31%, or 1-in-3. That’s an average – some parts are even steeper, climbing at almost 45º (1-in1).

  TAIWAN

  Perhaps controversially, I am including Taiwan as a separate sovereign state, even though mainland China lays claim to the island as its own territory. That dispute is far from being resolved, and until it is, and while Taiwan currently governs itself as a completely independent country, I feel I am justified in treating it separately.

  Taiwan’s railway history is however inextricably tied up with the First Sino-Japanese War – a war that we found was a fundamental part of China’s railway history (see above). One of the results of that war was that Japan assumed ownership of the island of Formosa (as Taiwan used to be known), in 1895. Apart from an obscure narrow gauge railway built in 1891 by the Qing Dynasty (gauge not known), Formosa had no railways at that time.

  When the Governor-general of Taiwan, under the Japanese government’s direction, started railway construction in 1895, he naturally built those early railways to the same gauge as in Japan itself – 1067 mm Cape gauge. From that date until the outbreak of the Second World War, five lines totalling nearly 1000 km were built, and all of course to the Japanese gauge of 1067 mm.

  Although Taiwan’s railways suffered heavy damage during World War II, they were rebuilt without changing the gauge, notwithstanding that from 1945 Taiwan was handed over to the Republic of China, whose railways were to Standard gauge. These particular lines remain to Cape gauge to this day, and as far as is known, there are no plans to convert them to 1435 mm Standard gauge.

  Today, almost all trains in Taiwan are electric, including some tilting trains capable of 150 km/h – a very high speed for this narrow gauge. Most journeys are of the short commuter variety, although some long distance trains are run, primarily catering to tourists. Taiwan’s railways, consisting of eight main lines, plus some freight-only harbour railways, currently total about 1200 km of route distance.

  But not all railways in Taiwan are to 1067 mm gauge – far from it in fact. Ther
e were once as many as four or five gauges in concurrent use.

  Taiwan had an extensive network of 762 mm gauge railways, which were used to transport sugar cane to the sugar mills. Some of these trains were used to transfer passengers to the main-line railways.

  At one time, there were over 3000 km of these 762 mm gauge sugar railways, but most, if not all, are now closed, with passenger services being discontinued in the early 1980s.

  When it comes to a gauge wider than 1067 mm, again this is to be found in Taiwan. The Taipei metro (the so-called High Capacity lines) is to Standard gauge, as is the High Speed line.

  An exception to conventional flanged steel wheel on rail is Taipei’s so-called Medium Capacity Brown Line, which is a rubber-tyred system based on the VAL 256 system using a central guideway, and therefore doesn’t have a gauge as such, although the specifications show that the concrete rollways are to 1880 mm ‘gauge’. Quite how that ‘gauge’ is measured is unclear.

  The cities of Kaohsiung and Taichung also have 1435 mm gauge conventional metros.

  Finally, a unique feature of Taiwan was the push-car railways – small hand operated push cars (daisha in Japanese) that were used to transport the local peasants’ surplus agricultural products to markets in more central towns. They were very narrow gauge – believed to be 457 mm (18 inches).

  NORTH KOREA

  As with so many countries in Asia, Korea has endured a number of wars during its history, and again some of those wars have affected its railway development – particularly the gauge of those railways, which usually reflected who was ruling it at any one time!

  Korea was of course one country, until the Korean war in the early 1950s split it into two parts. But Korea had endured many wars before that one – the same wars that had engulfed China, Russia and Japan in the late 19th-early 20th century period.

  It is probably true to say that Japan was one of the early railway builders in Korea, during the First Sino-Japanese war in 1894-95 – these railway lines were in fact key to Japan’s occupation of and control over Korea. Yet the lines that Japan built, to facilitate troop movements into Russia, were built to 1435 mm Standard gauge, and not to Japan’s 1067 mm gauge. Obviously the route, through China, was the major influence on the gauge of Korea’s railways while under Japanese rule.

  North Korea is currently a very secretive country, all but closed to westerners, and consequently obtaining accurate up-to-date information on its railways is quite difficult. The main current rail link with China, to 1435 mm gauge, is via the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge (which also permits road traffic, but no pedestrians). While the bridge, which was also known as the Yalu River Border Railway Bridge until 1990, is still open, recent souring of relations between North Korea and China give rise to some doubt that the bridge will remain open (one report states that the bridge is currently closed, although most references indicate that it in fact is still open).

  Nonetheless, a trans-Korean freight-only main line, running north-south and connecting South Korea with Russia is being talked about, and may be even in the planning stages. Obviously there is a break of gauge at the border with the 1520 mm gauge Russian tracks.

  Today, North Korea can boast of over 5000 km of Standard gauge lines, of which around 3500 km is electrified. Those that are not electrified saw steam traction until relatively recently, even hauling main-line passenger trains.

  But not all of North Korea’s railways are to 1435 mm gauge. The country also has around 400 km of 762 mm gauge (sometimes noted as being 760 mm gauge) lines – and electrification has even reached these lines. Over 300 km of 762 mm gauge trackwork is electrified, which probably represents one of the most extensive programs in the world of electrification of such a small gauge.

  Yet steam trains at this small gauge were still to be found until recently, and may even still be running, although reports on these steam trains beyond 2007 are virtually non-existent. The dual 762 mm/1435 mm gauge industrial line at Cholgwang was known to be running in that year, but closure was being mooted, and it may well now be defunct.

  Trams and metros:

  Like most countries under a somewhat repressive rule, private car ownership is a rare thing in North Korea, and consequently public transportation still plays a huge part in the lives of the country’s citizens. The capital city of Pyongyang has extensive tram and metro systems.

  The 1435 mm Standard gauge metro system is, like those in Russia, a stunning example of grandeur and exotic décor, with extensive use of marble cladding and glass chandeliers gracing the platforms of its stations. This two-line metro (a third is planned), opened in the early 1970s, lays claim to being the deepest in the world – a claim that we have already seen in respect of the city of St Petersburg in Russia. That disputed claim can perhaps be resolved by noting that St Petersburg’s system is the deepest on average (at over 110 m), while that in Pyongyang has the deepest individual station, at around 150 m below surface, although its average, at around 110 m, is little different than that in St Petersburg.

  Pyongyang’s metro may have exotically-decorated stations, but its trains are not so grandiose – they consist extensively of quite old (1957 and later) ex-U-Bahn rolling stock from the former East Germany (East and West Berlin), supposedly refurbished with the help of China, although North Korea disputes this. Some of these trains are now reportedly being used on some surface suburban lines, while the underground is receiving new locally made trainsets.

  When it comes to surface street railways, Pyongyang, unlike its metro, had a tram system as early as 1923. It was built when North Korea was under Japanese occupation, and was, as far as can be ascertained, to the prevailing Japanese gauge of 1067 mm. It closed after extensive damage during the Korean war.

  But new tram systems have since opened in Pyongyang. Relying, like the metro, on ex-European rolling stock – in this case from the cities of Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Zurich and Prague – the first line opened in 1991, in time for the late Kim Il Sung’s 79th birthday. The system currently consists of four lines in total, but new ones are planned.

  Three of those lines, mostly running in their own right-of-way parallel to the main streets, are to Standard gauge, where many of Prague’s old Tatra trams may be found still operating, as well as a few trams from the three German cities mentioned above. The fourth line, running trams originally seen in Zurich, is to 1000 mm gauge. This line is somewhat special – it takes visitors to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where Kim Il Sung is buried. Quite why this line is to metre gauge is not known, unless it was simply a matter of expediency in being able source cheap trams from Zurich!

  There are no other metros in North Korea, and only one other tram system, in the city of Chongjin. It is to Standard gauge – and it uses trams that have been discarded by Pyongyang! Considering how old Pyongyang’s trams were to start with, and allowing for the sporadic electricity supply in Chongjin, the tram service there must be marginal to say the least.

  SOUTH KOREA

  The contrast between communist-controlled North Korea and democratic free-enterprise South Korea is of course one of the most stark contrasts in the world, especially considering that they were both one nation 60 or so years ago. But their railways stem from a common heritage, so that when it comes to the gauges of their respective railways, we see the same patterns in both countries.

  In 1896, when Korea was under Japanese rule, two US businessmen were granted a concession to build a railway from Seoul to Chemulpo. Within a few years, the line was opened, and as far as is known it was built to 1435 mm gauge, although history does not record this for a fact – and even assuming it to be true, as it most probably was by all appearances, certainly no reasons have been found as to why Standard gauge was chosen. It could be that these early lines were intended to link up with those in the northern part of Korea, built just a couple of years earlier by the Japanese, and, as noted above, already built to Standard gauge in order to link up with China’s railways (with an eventual link to Rus
sia). Alternatively, it could have been simply the easy availability of US-sourced Standard gauge locomotives and rolling stock.

  In 1902, the French were also building, and even operating, railways in southern Korea. Unlike their railway building in Vietnam, where metre-gauge was chosen (even for the one part of these lines that extended into Standard gauge China – see China above), the lines the French built in Korea were to 1435 mm gauge.

  Other lines were being built during the early years of the 20th century during Korea’s Colonial period, all to Standard gauge, even though at least one of these lines linked up with Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway (and of course involving a break of gauge at the border). One of those lines built during Japan’s occupation was that from Incheon via Suwon to Yeoju, which was originally built in 1937 to 762 mm gauge, and used to carry salt, vegetable and rice to port, where it was eventually shipped to Japan itself. It was abandoned in 1951, but subsequently rebuilt to Standard gauge and re-opened.

  After this period, little more new railway construction was implemented, until towards the end of the last century. In the 1980s, South Korea, in the vanguard of massive economic expansion, decided it would like to join the 300 km/h set, and tendered for the construction, including some technology transfer, of new high speed lines. Proposals were invited from the three world leaders of such technology, comprising Japan’s Shinkansen, Germany’s ICE, and France’s TGV.

  The French won out, and today South Korea can boast of its own 300 km/h lines, with its KTX (Korea Train Express) trains clearly derived from the French TGV. Construction started in the early 1990s, but a number of delays, both technical and political, meant that the first line didn’t open until 2004.