China will rely on high-speed passenger railway trains and heavy-load freight trains to meet its railway expansion goal, reports Friday's Beijing News.

A national railway conference has set a goal of accelerating the modernization of China's train manufacturing industry during the 11th five-year plan period between 2006 and 2010.

The high-speed passenger trains and heavy-load and fast freight trains will be the future target for China's railway train manufacturers, according to the conference.

China is at a crucial phase in its upgrading of its railway transport capacity to achieve rapid economic growth, and the government has issued its mid-term and long-term railway network scheme.

According to the scheme, China plans to extend its railway length to 100,000 kilometers by 2020, and over 12,000 km of high-speed railways are to be built in the years ahead with a total cost between 2 trillion yuan (US$250 billion) and 2.5 trillion yuan (US$312.5 billion).

This month, two significant railway projects have been approved by the State Council: the 450-km-per-hour Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev railway and the 300-350-km-per-hour Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2006)