He called for 14,300 miles of railroads to be built within ten years following the end of the war. However “3,726 miles were lost through the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and 6,566 miles were lost or destroyed during the first five-and-one-half years of the Sino-Japanese war.” While lines lost but not destroyed could presumably be reused after the war, the scope of his program, as can be seen from comparison with how much was achieved, was considerably beyond what China could hope to reach with their existing resources.

IIn 2010, China’s investments into railway construction showed a growth rate of above 100%. The demand for railway transport equipment such as locomotive, freight wagon, passenger coach, etc. brought by China’s railway construction will bring along the rapid development of railway transport equipment industry.

China’s traditional passenger coach, freight wagon and otherwise experienced a steady growth in 2009. Under the backdrop of electrification of Chinese railways and the increasing construction of high-speed railway & urban rail transit, products like AC transmission high-power locomotive, electric locomotive, electric multiple units (EMU), urban rail & subway vehicle have been the highlights of market growth in this industry. Taking China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR) as an example, in 2009, the market growth rate of its locomotive, EMU, urban rail & subway turned out to be 73.06%, 39.95%, and 70.55%, respectively. From the perspective of market competition structure, CNR (China CNR Corporation Limited) and CSR currently dominate railway transport market in China. As the key subordinate enterprise of CNR, CNR Changchun currently accounts for 50% share of the total quantity of passenger trains in China and 40% of the in-service quantity of urban rail & subway vehicles. In 2009, the business revenue of CNR Changchun was RMB5.77 billion, and its new orders originated primarily from such business as subway vehicles, EMU and so forth.

As an important part of urban public transport system, in China national standard 《Common terms of urban public transport》, urban rail transport is defined as “all-encompassing term for a large volume of public transport by wheel running mode, running on electricity usually”. At present, international rail transit has many types such as subway, light rail, suburban railway, trams and maglev trains, etc., and has been described as the “major artery of urban traffic”. Compared with other public transports, urban rail transport has the following characteristics: preserving land, big transport capacity, and having 10 times the delivery capacity of highway transportation.

China urban rail transport developed rapidly. The total length of rail transit network that people in urban China are planning to construct is up to 5000 kilometers, with total investment estimated to be more than 800 billion Yuan. With the rapid urbanization being an important part of China urban public traffic network, the construction of urban rail transport network developed quickly. More than ten cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc. had constructed rail transit lines, and there are 25 cities which are included national planning to construct rail transit network.
Urban rail transit is a capital intensive and technology intensive industry. At present, Chinese construction and operation management system can’t excise effective supervision, guide and control on project construction; legal construction, technology control and standardization system of domestic urban rail transport industry haven’t formed. In order to make China urban rail industry have international competitiveness, it is urgent to make related industry laws and regulations to promote the development of China-made equipments. As the heavy investment, long construction period and high exit cost, only by guaranteeing enough passenger volume, it can earn a profit. So caution must be taken for the investment and construction to avoid aimless starting.

China rail transit equipment mainly relied on imports in the early stage of comprehensive construction. Local finance could not afford the high prices. Since implementing the domestic policy of urban rail transport equipment, making railways more domestic has achieved brilliant success and domestic urban rail vehicles have continuously appeared, such as the metro vehicles produced by the cooperation of Nanjing Puzhen Train Repairing Factory and Ahlstrom Limited Company, used for Shanghai rail transit line 3;

light rail vehicles produced by Dalian Locomotive Vehicle Factory, used for the light rail between Jinshitan and Heishijiao in Dalian; light rail vehicles of 100km/h produced by Chuangchun Bus-producing Factory, used for Tianjin Binhai light rail; metro conditioning vehicles produced by Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Factory, used for Beijing metro Batong line. Although domestic factories having made big progresses, they face severe competition from foreign manufacturers, and need to make effort.

In future, the development of urban rail transport will construct high effective integrated transport system together with other transport means, and operation system will be reformed further to make the external benefit embody in the internal benefit. Market access will be relaxed to make the urban rail transport industry play its role well in the development of the Chinese economy.