Conclusions

Abstract

China’s rapid development affects all sectors of its economy, and the logistics and transportation sector is no exception. Modern transport and logistics services are essential to let China’s economic boom continue. Chinese Railways plays an important role in China’s transportation landscape, for both passenger and freight transport. Although competition from other modes of transport has intensified, a significant number of passengers depend on the railway for personal mobility, and entire industries rely on the railway’s cargo transport services. Given the sheer size of the task, Chinese Railways is not performing badly, but it could be performing much better as has been shown in this research. Chinese Railways is under pressure: it carries the world’s largest amount of freight tonnage and over a billion passengers per year on a railway network, which is a third the size of the US rail network. As a result, the network is overcrowded and Chinese Railways cannot offer the transport services necessary to support the growing economy. It would be short-sighted however, to just focus on the underdeveloped network. Railway infrastructure construction is expensive and time-consuming, and it would not enable Chinese Railways to improve its transport services or expand its capacity in the near future. Therefore, the intention of this research was to suggest measures to improve Chinese Railways’ efficiency beyond the construction of new tracks and the purchase of rolling stock.