Recently, a Weibo big V published such a blog post: "The main reason for the huge loss of high-speed rail is that it consumes too much electricity?".When I heard about the Japanese Shinkansen, I was puzzled: You need 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity to run one kilometer, why do we only need 43 kilowatt-hours of electricity?As soon as this article was published, it immediately aroused controversy and heated discussions among netizens. For a time, rumors spread everywhere, and the statement that "China's high-speed rail lost 6 trillion yuan, mainly due to too much power consumption" was very loud, confusing the public, and making the people who eat melons confused for a while, and it was difficult to distinguish the truth from the false.
So, is this really the main reason for the huge losses of China's high-speed rail?
Since the opening of China's first high-speed railway, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, in 2008, it has achieved explosive growth in just over 10 years. By the end of 2022, the total operating mileage of China's railways has increased from 980,000 kilometers soared to 1550,000 kilometers, with a total passenger volume of 259100 million people;The total mileage of high-speed rail business lines in the country has reached 420,000 kilometers, of which 3,500 kilometers are high-speed rail sections built according to the standard of 350 kilometers per hour. According to the official statistics of the Ministry of Transport, China's "high-speed rail" currently ranks first in the world in terms of passenger turnover, freight turnover and transportation density. For example, in 2021, the total number of passengers transported for the year was as high as 26100 million passengers, and 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country have achieved full coverage of high-speed rail. It can be said that China's high-speed rail has firmly sat on the throne of "the world's first" in terms of quantity and quality.
Generally speaking, we have a huge travel demand and consumer market of up to 1.4 billion people, and there should be little pressure to feed China's high-speed rail, and operational efficiency and profits should reach a fairly high level. But what is puzzling is that not only is it not profitable, but it is in the predicament of huge losses. According to the public data of the "China Railway Group", in the first half of 2022 alone, the total liabilities of the China Railway Group have exceeded 6 trillion yuan, and the loss amount has increased by 80.4 billion yuan, with an average daily loss of 4400 million yuan.
So, why is there such a shocking loss at the same time of rapid development?
First of all, this is because of the historical mission and primary responsibility of China's state-owned enterprises and central enterprises. In order to achieve the national long-term development strategic goals, the service purpose of "high-speed rail" is to benefit the public and benefit the people. That's why tickets are among the cheapest in the world.
High construction costs, low fare revenue;Add to that high operating costs, including energy consumption, line maintenance, and railroad employee salaries. Not only in planning, line survey, line laying, R&D and manufacturing, and personnel training, but also in the construction process, a series of unpredictable problems are often encountered, such as geological structure, environmental protection and local public relations along the way, which will greatly increase the overall operating costs. It can be seen that the construction cost of China's "high-speed railway" is high, and the maintenance cost is also high, so it is inevitable that there will be huge losses in the end;
Secondly, China's people's travel modes are showing a trend of diversified development. In particular, the increasing number of passengers on airplanes and sleeper trains has also greatly diverted the passenger crowd of high-speed rail. Just imagine, my country is now in a time when the gods are fighting with various means of transportation, the plane is proud of the rivers and lakes with its speed advantage, the soft sleeper train is lying down to make money with the comfort advantage, and the number of self-driving people is increasing. In the face of such a white-hot competitive situation, can the "high-speed rail" still be the only one, and it must be sitting?
Thirdly, the three-year-long epidemic and its sequelae have led to a sharp decline in the passenger flow of high-speed rail in recent years, and the number of tourists has decreased precipitously, which is bound to greatly affect the revenue and profit of China's high-speed rail system
In addition, streamlining the establishment, rectifying the style, and lean management are also a strategy.
So, what is the real power consumption of China's high-speed rail?
According to international practice, the power consumption of high-speed rail is calculated on the basis of "unit train kilometers". This is a measure of the efficiency of a train's operation, i.e. the amount of electricity consumed by the train for every kilometer traveled. In terms of "unit train kilometers", the power consumption of China's high-speed rail is not only not high, but also one of the lowest in the world. This is because at the beginning of the design of China's high-speed rail, it has always adhered to and run through the concept of "energy conservation and environmental protection". From the selection of the power system, to the aerodynamic performance design of the vehicle, to the lightweight design of the whole vehicle, the requirements of "energy saving and environmental protection" are fully considered.
The maximum speed of China's "G" high-speed railway can reach 400 kilometers per hour, the average speed is about 300 kilometers per hour, and the design speed is mostly about 350 kilometers per hour. If you drive at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, you need to consume 9,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity in one hour, which is 27 per kilometer4 degrees;If you drive at a lower speed, you will use less power;Not only that, but at the beginning of the construction, the intelligent high-speed rail people carefully designed several sections of "no electricity zone" on each section in advance. When the train reaches these sections, it does not have to consume electricity to move forward by coasting.
After calculation and comparison, it can be found that the electricity consumed by China's "high-speed rail" is only about half of the 43 kilowatt-kilowatt-kilometers consumed by Japan's Shinkansen. In other words, China's high-speed rail is nearly 1 times more energy-efficient than Japan.
In fact, compared with countries around the world that have high-speed rail, China's operating costs are less than 10,000 yuan per hour, which can be called one of the most energy-efficient high-speed railways in the world. As a typical example of China's innovation and breakthrough in the field of high-tech in recent years, "high-speed rail" has now become China's trump card product with independent intellectual property rights and "China's business card", and has won wide recognition and praise from all countries in the world. Nowadays, China's high-speed rail has already stepped out of the country, to the world, galloping in a foreign land. Many countries have voluntarily adopted the "Chinese standard" in the construction of their own high-speed railways, and invited China to train relevant talents for them.
Although compared with household appliances, the power consumption of "high-speed rail" is indeed larger, but the statistics of relevant departments have proved that the per capita energy consumption of China's high-speed rail per 100 kilometers is only 18% of that of aircraft and about 50% of that of buses. Especially in some high-speed rail sections, China's "Fuxing" bullet train has lower energy consumption and better performance. For example, the "Fuxing" EMU of the "Nanguang High-speed Railway" section can reach an ultra-high level of only 2 kWh of electricity per 100 kilometers on average at a running speed of 250 kilometers, and is even more energy-efficient than electric vehicles
It can be seen from this that the argument that "China's 'high-speed railway' costs 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, while Japan's Shinkansen only costs 43 kilowatt-kilowatt-ki
It is conceivable that those netizens who initially compared the energy consumption of the China-Japan high-speed railway, with the "hard-core technology fans" as the leader, had ill intentions, secretly changed the concept, and deliberately confused the difference between "energy consumption per 100 kilometers" and "energy consumption per kilometer", and finally came to such a ridiculous conclusion. Surprisingly, these guys wanted to advocate the low energy consumption of Japan's Shinkansen, but after scientific calculations, they were surprised to find that China's high-speed rail is not only faster, but also has lower energy consumption.
At present, what is the best way to change the current situation of China's high-speed rail loss?
From the perspective of development stage, China's high-speed rail is currently in its infancy, in the ascendant, and has broad prospects. When the strategic layout stage is completed, the next step should be to solve the problem of "China Railway Group" making profits as soon as possible.
First of all, we must use our wisdom to vigorously develop the economy, increase national income, and further stimulate domestic demand. Only in this way can we lead the people to get rid of the "post-epidemic shadow" as soon as possible, so that the broad masses of people not only like to take the high-speed rail, but also can afford to sit down, and generally enjoy the fruits of the country's reform and opening up
Second, deepen the reform of the economic system and further tap the potential of enterprises. In particular, it is necessary to speed up the pace of deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises like the "National Railway Group", prescribe the right medicine, tap the potential and increase efficiency, strive to improve the "state-owned enterprise disease", and improve operational efficiency and profitability
Third, we can be flexible and adjust those less busy high-speed rail lines appropriately.
China's supply-side structural reform and factor market-oriented allocation reform continue to deepen, and constantly promote the transformation of "Made in China" to "Created in China", "China Speed" to "China Quality", and "Manufacturing Power" to "Manufacturing Power".It has created a series of better business environment for the development of enterprises.
Today, China's economy has entered a "high-speed growth stage" to a "high-quality development stage", and has achieved qualitative changes and leaps in economic development. At the same time, the construction of China's "high-speed railway" has also achieved leapfrog development, the main skeleton of "four vertical and four horizontal" has been fully completed, and the layout of the main channel of "eight vertical and eight horizontal" has been formed, outlining a grand blueprint of "people are convenient for their travel, and goods flow smoothly".
Although there is still a long way to go for China's "high-speed rail" to turn losses into profits, we have reason to believe that with the rapid development of China's science and technology and the continuous improvement of management level, the operational efficiency and profitability of China's high-speed rail will be steadily improved, and the problem of long-term losses will be solved in the near futureAs the famous saying of "materialist dialectics" says: "The road is tortuous, the future is bright", China's high-speed rail will surely follow the rise of China's economy, fly together with wings, and create brilliance!