China Planning High-Speed Rail Link To London.

China Planning High-Speed Rail Link To London.

Popular Science (3/17, Dillow) reports on China's "plans to extend its high-speed network all the way to London" by 2020, "with a rail line that will fly through 17 countries at speeds reaching 200 miles per hour." In all, three lines are being planned. In addition to a link between London and Beijing, "a second line will connect China with Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. The third line will link Germany and Russia, crossing Siberia to terminate, of course, in China." As an incentive to the 17 counties to agree to its proposal, China is offering to "build the infrastructure in exchange for rights to natural resources in the nations that benefit from the high-speed links."

        High-Speed Rail Could Increase Urban Sprawl. The Wired (3/16, Kambitsis) "Autopia" blog reported that although high-speed rail offers a number of benefits, it could also increase urban sprawl, according to "some urban planners. Despite the promise of creating more densely populated urban centers, high-speed rail could do quite the opposite by making it easier for people to live far from urban centers." While "the goal of high-speed rail in the United Sates" is similar to that of Europe and Japan in that it would link large cities, "the big difference between the European and American approach is Europeans have made a large investment in rail and the accompanying infrastructure that links it with stations and communities," and the US has not.