ety
Trusted Member
The problems of building HSR to Xinjiang and Xizang are huge costs overcoming difficult terrains and sparsely populated areas along the routes. If the two provinces have population distributions similar to esp eastern half of China, then it makes a lot sense too, sheer distance is not the problem, passengers can board and get off along the stations on the routes at will.HSR makes sense for flights distance for less than 3hrs. For flight distance of 3 hrs or more, flying still makes more sense. That why I don’t think it makes much economic sense to have HSR to Xinjiang or Tibet as the distance is further and ridership is less. Not viable for travel or investment in the infrastructure. But HSR for the rest of China makes sense.
As for extending the infrastructure outside of China, it makes sense to South East Asia but not to Central Asia or Russia. The distance vs ridership doesn’t work out.














































