Very soon, the Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway will connect two states, China and Russia. The preliminary cost of the project is estimated at 1.5 trillion yuan, or $242 billion. The total length of the road will be 7 thousand kilometers. Travel time from one point to another will be 2 days, and the road itself will be laid through the territory of Kazakhstan.
Minimum travel time
Today, China is actively offering its innovative technologies in the construction of international railways. One of these projects should be the Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway. The news spread around the world very quickly, especially given the chilled relations between America, Europe and Russia, combined with the conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russia's attempts to recover from the stunning collapse of the international oil market. In October 2014, between the China Railway Construction Corporation and the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Russian Railways andChina's State Committee for Development and Reform signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of high-speed rail. The main purpose of the document was to develop a project for the Eurasian High-Speed Transport Corridor, which will include the Moscow-Kazan highway.
History of the idea
The Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway has existed at the level of an idea for quite a long time. The project should be a great alternative for those who do not have the desire to travel by air. The transfer of the idea to the level of the project being implemented occurred against the background of the activation of purchases in America, the delivery of which is guaranteed by specialists as soon as possible. The high-speed rail project should provide countries such as China and Russia with decent competitiveness in the international market. As mentioned above, according to representatives of Russian Railways, the Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway will cost the countries 7 trillion rubles. The Chinese partners are ready to invest in the construction of the road an amount equivalent to 4 trillion rubles, all other expenses will be assigned to the Russian budget. Today, active negotiations are underway to allocate funds for the construction of a road along the Moscow-Kazan route as part of an international project.
What is delaying road construction?
The period when the Moscow-Beijing expressway will begin to be built is still little known. This is due to the protracted resolution of funding issues. Considering the current situationin Russia, despite the fact that China is ready to take on most of the costs, the country is simply not ready to incur such a massive financial cost. 3 trillion rubles is an unaffordable capital for the state today. It is highly likely that private investors will be attracted to the project.
Technical points and preliminary decisions
Information provided by correspondents of The Beijing Times, speaks of an active discussion of the construction of the railway between the countries. The first step towards the implementation of the project should be the way from Moscow to Kazan. It is planned to start the route in Beijing, then the road will pass through cities such as Khabarovsk and Ulan Bator, Irkutsk and Astana, Yekaterinburg. Moscow will be the final destination. The completed high-speed railway will be three times longer than the current high-speed line between Beijing and Guangzhou. The travel time between cities after the implementation of the project will be not six days, but only two. Today, only two trains run between the capitals of the two states during the week. The route was opened in 1954. The Trans-Siberian Railway is considered the longest in the world. It stretched from Moscow to Vladivostok. It crosses 400 stations and is 9,288 kilometers long.
First difficulties and first cardinal steps
The Beijing-Moscow high-speed train is unlikely to enter its route in the near future. As mentioned above, the first stageThe project, which in the future will connect the territories of the two states, should be the Moscow-Kazan road, the preliminary cost of which turned out to be too high for Russia. To attract investors, Gazprombank held a road show worth 1.06 trillion rubles in cities such as Beijing and Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. According to preliminary information, a number of meetings with potential partners around the world have already taken place:
- May 14 - in Singapore.
- May 15 - in Shanghai.
- May 16 - in Beijing.
In the future, the visit of Gazprom Bank representatives to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, is being considered. According to representatives of Russian Railways, meetings with Asian investors were planned for several months. It is necessary to involve the East in partnership due to severe sanctions from the West. A message from Pronedra stated that the Moscow-Beijing expressway would not be built in the next few years. The implementation of the first part of the project, the HSR between Moscow and Kazan, may be postponed to 2020. This is due to the fact that Russian Railways has not yet managed to find an investor.
First stage of project implementation
The state budget of the country and Russian Railways intend to allocate 191.9 billion rubles for the first stage of the project. Other sections of the route, such as Vladimir-Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod-Cheboksary, Cheboksary-Kazan, are planned to be equipped through concessions. This is what the Ministry of Transport announced on January 29, 2015. For the first time, residents of the region, within the framework of whichexpressway, learned only at the beginning of 2015. The new track will run parallel to the M-7 federal highway, known as the Volga. The train will make stops. In particular, in Vladimir the station will be located in Sukhodol.
What do the inhabitants of the regions say?
The Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway, on the map, which will pass through a fairly large section of territories, caused a very mixed reaction among people who will have to live next door to it. There are those who are worried about the expected damage that will hit farmland, forests and established laying. The authorities officially announced that at each site where construction will be carried out, all activities will be pre-agreed with the population. One of the sources of information says that if a sponsor can be found, the HSR will be opened in 2018. The maximum speed on the road will be 400 kilometers per hour, which will shorten the journey from Moscow to Kazan from 11 hours to 3.5 hours.
Obligations of the parties
The Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway, the scheme of which is theoretically very attractive and profitable, according to preliminary plans, should begin its work in the period from 2018 to 2020. In the future, the Chinese side undertakes to provide its technologies for the implementation of the project. The country is ready to take full responsibility for planning and construction. In exchange for large-scale assistance, China is ready to accept energy resources from Russia.
Until December 15, 2014, it was planned to develop the conditions under which Chinese companies will be able to participate in the project. Information about whether it was possible to formalize the agreement is still hidden from the public. The right to design the Moscow-Kazan highway project was won by a Russian-Chinese consortium managed by Mostgiprotrans OJSC with the active participation of Nizhegorodmetroproekt OJSC and CREEC (China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co. Ltd.). The contract price for this category of work is equivalent to 20 billion rubles, but excluding VAT.
Analysts about the project
The Moscow-Beijing high-speed railway is a high-priority and promising project, but this does not prevent analysts from being skeptical about it. They say that the timing of the launch of high-speed lines in the context of 2018-2020 is unrealistic. According to Alexei Bezborodov, who holds the post of CEO of the InfraNews agency, the project will not be launched in the next decade either. The basis for this attitude was the official statement of the Russian Railways representative that at the moment there is no specific action plan for the construction of high-speed lines. There is only a high probability that the Moscow-Kazan road will be extended to Yekaterinburg and beyond in the future.
Who will benefit from the construction of the expressway?
Speedythe Moscow-Beijing highway will bring certain advantages not only for Russian Railways, but also for states as a whole. This is due to agglomeration effects that will arise as the population is resettled during the implementation of the project. In the expected future, the high-speed highway should increase GRP by 30-70% in the regions. Additional income from the road will correspond to at least 11 trillion rubles in the first decade of the project operation. This figure was presented by a group of economic institutions headed by the Ministry of Economic Development. If the high-speed railway does appear, the GRP will increase by 38% only on the territory of the Vladimir region alone. This is about plus 84 billion rubles. By 2030, this figure will increase by 58%, or in monetary terms - by 131 billion rubles. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, the expected economic growth is 39%, or 252 billion rubles, but by 2030 it should be at least 76%, or 496 billion. In Chuvashia, the value is expected to grow by 13%, or 20 billion rubles. By 2025, the jump will be 28%, or 43 billion rubles. In Tatarstan, the expected economic growth by 2025 will be 27%, or 274 billion rubles.
