200mph 'Orient Express' could get passengers from London to Beijing in just TWO days
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:58 AM on 09th March 2010
Rail travel between London and Beijing in just two days could be possible within a decade through an ambitious Chinese project.
The Asian power wants to build the 200mph 'Orient Express-style' rail line through Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia, paying for the entire scheme in return to access to the natural resources of the countries it travels through.
The main line would link London with Beijing via Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Kiev, St Petersburg, Moscow, Astana in Kazakhstan and Khabarovsk in Russia's far east.
Complementing that service would be lines taking passengers to Turkmenistan, Iran and India or Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Chinese railway consultant Wang Mengshu said the 8,150-mile journey would take just two days to complete. To fly to Beijing from London takes about 10 hours.
China already operates the world's fastest train - a 250mph service that links Wuhan and Guangzhou. A similar service in Britain would complete a return journey between London and Edinburgh in just three hours.
'The best case scenario is that the three networks will be completed in a decade,' Mr Wang said.
'It was not China that pushed the idea to start with. It was the other countries that came to us.
'These countries cannot fully-implement the construction of a high-speed rail network and they hope to draw on our experience and technology.'
Mr Wang said his country had offered to bankroll the stretch of railway through Burma in return for a share of the country's lithium stores.
'We would actually prefer the other countries to pay in natural resources rather than make their own capital investment,' he said.
Read more: 200mph train could link London and Beijing in just two days | Mail Online