Most of the lines are used fairly well. Overall ridership of the network was 3.2billion trips last year. It is still growing.
As for the economics, it is infrastructure, which is going to last for a century or more. It obviously requires upgrades, but having a fast reliable, green form of transport between a countries large cities has a lot of advantages. Not the least are indirect economic advantages. Like for example making business trips easier, but also tourism. That is why Japan, South Korea and Western European countries built hsr as well.
That also means taking on debt is somewhat sensible, as long as economic growth from the better connections is bigger then the cost of the debt. That is honestly just running the country like a business.
Most of the lines are used fairly well. Overall ridership of the network was 3.2billion trips last year. It is still growing.
As for the economics, it is infrastructure, which is going to last for a century or more. It obviously requires upgrades, but having a fast reliable, green form of transport between a countries large cities has a lot of advantages. Not the least are indirect economic advantages. Like for example making business trips easier, but also tourism. That is why Japan, South Korea and Western European countries built hsr as well.
That also means taking on debt is somewhat sensible, as long as economic growth from the better connections is bigger then the cost of the debt. That is honestly just running the country like a business.
Building a fast rail for tourism is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard; you actually have to produce something worthwhile for ec growth
Where did you shit that number? The whole system, and we are only talking about the underused lines, “only” transport 500k ppl a day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China)
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Railway_High-speed#Ridership
I wonder why your source doesn’t state the amount of people moved, I sure love dictatorships!