A drone photo taken on Sept. 28, 2026 shows the first train of Harbin-Yichun high-speed railway running in Yichun, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo: Xinhua)

China will steadily advance the commercial operation of high-speed trains capable of running at 400 kilometers per hour during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), while building about 15,000 kilometers of new railways, including about 10,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Wednesday.

China will also largely complete the main corridors of its "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed rail network, expand regional connecting routes where appropriate and accelerate efforts to establish a complete technology and standards system for the construction and operation of 400-kilometer per-hour high-speed railways.

The new targets build on a railway system that has already reached a substantial scale. As of the end of 2025, China's operating railway network had expanded to 165,000 kilometers, including more than 50,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, the largest high-speed rail network in the world. The country aims to bring the total railway system to about 180,000 kilometers by 2030, including about 60,000 kilometers of high-speed rail.

Beyond adding new lines, China's railway expansion has become increasingly tied to broader economic and regional development. Railway fixed-asset investment reached 601.2 billion yuan ($90.06 billion) in the first three quarters of 2026, up 1.3 percent year-on-year, while 1,625 kilometers of new railway lines were put into operation during the period.

Railway construction has a long industrial chain, generating demand for steel, cement, construction machinery, rolling stock, electrical equipment and related manufacturing, while also supporting employment. Better rail links can shorten travel times, connect inland production bases with major cities and ports, and improve access to larger markets for regions previously constrained by transport bottlenecks, Chinese experts noted.

Freight transport will be another focus during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) period. China aims to increase railway freight volume by 220 million tons and will steadily promote the operation of freight trains on railways designed for speeds of 200 kilometers per hour according to demand. Major projects include completing high-standard high-speed railways along the Yangtze River, accelerating the completion of coastal high-speed railways and steadily advancing border railway construction.

The push toward 400-kilometer per hour commercial operation also marks another step in China's high-speed rail technology development. Progress in train design, signaling, infrastructure, safety and operating standards could strengthen China's ability to provide integrated railway solutions, rather than individual trains or equipment alone, said Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.

That experience is already being applied overseas. Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, or Whoosh, is the first overseas high-speed railway project to fully use Chinese railway systems, technology and industrial components. Operating at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour, the line has cut the travel time between Jakarta and Bandung from more than three hours to about 46 minutes.

Since entering commercial service in October 2023, Whoosh has handled more than 18 million passenger trips as of October, according to the Xinhua News Agency, with an on-time performance rate of 99.4 percent over its first three years of operation.

As more countries seek to upgrade their transport infrastructure, China's experience in planning, constructing and operating large-scale railway systems could create further opportunities for international cooperation. The next phase of China's railway development will therefore be measured not only by how much new track is laid, but also by how effectively the network supports economic activity and how technological advances translate into broader industrial competitiveness, experts said.