On Asia’s Rail Networks: China Reopens “Ghost Stations”, Japan Rail’s Troubles | CNA Correspondent

On Asia’s Rail Networks: China Reopens “Ghost Stations”, Japan Rail’s Troubles | CNA Correspondent

[Music] I’m Tanui, CNA’s China correspondent. Over the course of 5 months between July and December 2024, I was on a journey to investigate the issue of abandoned high-speed train stations across China. I also took the opportunity to take a closer look at the rapid development of China’s highspeed train system. Wow, it’s quite unbelievable. The journey began when we spotted local media reports of so-called ghost train stations. My team and I pulled up these online articles. Now, this one says that the high-speed dream is broken and explains the reasons for the suspension of high-speed construction in several regions. And this one tells us where the 26 decommission stations are. The team discussed and believed it’s a story worth following up on. It would be interesting to go there to find out exactly what’s behind the abandoned station. We decided to check out three stations in Chongjo Hernan Province where the number of abandoned stations was one of the highest in the country. Last July, we made our way into Chung Jo. In less than two decades, China has emerged as a global leader in highspeed rail infrastructure. Today, its highspeed rail network spans a staggering 48,000 km. Trains on China’s highspeed rail network can reach speeds of up to 350 km per hour, making it one of the fastest globally. And as you can tell, we’re really going at very high speeds. There are plans to go even faster with speeds of up to 400 km per hour. Chinese President Citizen Ping once lorded the highspeed rail as a success of independent innovation. He called for greater development in the transport network to pave the way for Chinese style modernization. Our destination Chunjo is a sprawling city of more than 12 million people. The capital of central Hernand province is probably best known as the biggest iPhone manufacturing hub in the world. Foxcon, the iPhone supplier, used to have hundreds of thousands of people working at its factories here. Today, I’m here for a very different reason. This is one in four highspeed rail train stations that has been left unused in Hernand province. And as you can tell, there’s not a soul in sight except for these cars parked here. And this entire space takes up about 3,000 square meters. That’s about a size of a football field. And it’s completely vacant, which is quite a strange sight to behold, especially when we can see around the surrounding areas, new buildings. On closer inspection, a sign showed that the station shut in 2017, only 2 years after it began operation. Inside it was as if time stood still. Just a 20 minutes drive away, another empty station.
For the highspeed railway, it was a poster child for China’s infrastructure uh and the so-called Chinese miracle. Uh it was quite helpful to improve the local economy and improve uh the welfare of the average person in China. But uh during the hype of the infrastructure spending almost every single county was planning to get connected in this highspeed railway network which was clearly uh way above what the market can sustain. So as a result now we’re looking at a lot of the wasted investment. In its ambitious drive to blanket the country with highspeed rail, China’s railway operator has taken on an increasingly larger debt load. But of the vast highspeed rail network, only seven routes are profitable. Last year, its liabilities grew another 70 billion grand to 6.2 trillion grand or about $860 billion. While four major highspeed lines raised prices by as much as 20% to meet rising costs. As we can see that most highspeed railway do not make any money in China. So they as long as they operate they have to rely on the fiscal support. What has to happen is that the government uh do a calculation about the social benefit along with the asset return. So we cannot just see the money return when it comes to this kind of infrastructure. then they could have a more reasonable decision about uh uh what the next step should be.
Well, so I have to say that was a pretty epic journey.
It was completely empty and vacant and so it was me.
Our story on the ghost train stations aired on the 13th of August 2024. The story quickly gained traction when it’s uploaded on YouTube the next day since it’s still a story under reportported by international media. But it also sparked a heated debate online. I must say the strong reaction to the story surprised me. More than 350,000 views online and nearly 2,000 comments. But it also goes to show that the story is an under reportported issue. And from some of the comments online, you can see that there’s a lot of admiration for China’s highspeed train development. Not just from the Chinese people, but also from the rest of the world. [Music] Internally, we reviewed our coverage and concluded that our story painted a fair picture of what happened. I continued to follow China’s highspeed rail scene closely. And then one day, I received a surprise message. [Music] I’m Tanui, CNA’s China correspondent. I was on a journey to investigate China’s abandoned train stations that have been making news in recent years. In July last year, I visited three so-called ghost train stations in the central Chinese city of Chung Jo. I learned that the rapid expansion of China’s highspeed rail network was no mean feat and it came with a hefty price tag. In September, 2 months after we came back from our trip to Chungjo, I received texts from a keen train observer. We connected over LinkedIn after the first story aired. [Music] Indeed, local state media confirmed that a total of six out of 26 decommissioned highspeed railway stations would be back in service. What has changed that prompted the reopening of these stations? [Music] to find out. In December, I hopped on to a high-speed train to get to the abandoned stations we previously visited. Wow. It’s quite unbelievable that I am finally a lighting at this train station. Five months ago, this was completely shut. But it looks like only a handful of passengers are lighted at this stop. I spoke to one station operator there. However, just outside the train station, it was as quiet as before. 5 months ago, we could not even go through those doors. This area was completely cordoned off. Since it reopened, we spoke to some people. They say that it’s a lot more convenient going to work and to the airport. But, as you can tell, there aren’t many passengers using this train station. their considerations that okay for chicken and egg okay let’s do the chicken first even if it doesn’t really lay enough eggs at the moment and I need to make the uh chicken house and uh uh grow the chicken and I hope uh one day they going to lay enough eggs actually all across China because infrastructure is getting so sophisticated and many of them are dealing with the last mile connection activity. We do notice that uh uh many of those infrastructures are really investment far ahead of their basic calculation of return on investment. the motivation is that okay it contributes to immediately uh to uh the Chinese GDP because uh investment itself is part of the GDP and in hope that uh it’s going to be there to elevate uh other type of economic sectors. As China’s high-spe speed rail system has matured, the cost of building new stations has also risen, driven by land acquisition and the complexity of integration. As a result, many of the newer stations have been built in areas that are farther from the city centers. These locations often offer more affordable land and fewer logistical challenges. While these make them more viable, it also means they’re less convenient for commuters. at another reopened railway station. Footfall was brisk. There were residential buildings close by and a busy road next to it.
Costs are still an issue, but I think now there’s a case of like this support from a variety of factors. I think local authorities are willing to like pitch in and just simply reopen these stations. And also I think as cities develop you’re going to get more you know more and more people uh you know um pretty much building houses next to pretty much intercity railway stations and then it all really kinds of adds up. In the parts where the local authorities are either well off or they put the effort then they will pretty much open the stations and uh or reopen them. In places which are less developed, there’s probably going to be less impetus for this to happen.
Jung Jo is a manufacturing hub in central Hernand province, home to Apple suppliers Foxcon’s factories. Chinese EV maker BYYD also employs tens of thousands of workers at its factories here. The city was hit hard by the double whammy of US President Donald Trump’s first trade war in a nationwide housing crisis. In 2022, economic growth was a mega 1%. Last year, the city’s GDP expanded by 5.7%, beating the national average. While signs of recovery have emerged, the cracks from the property slump are still visible. This taxi driver once worked in the property sector for more than a decade before changing jobs. [Music] Okay. With the property sector, which was a key pillar of growth, still struggling, it’s hoped that the reopened train stations will improve connectivity and boost other economic activities such as tourism. At a nearby tourist spot, it was quiet when I visited. Perhaps it’s the offpic season. I spoke to one couple who recently moved back to their hometown. They say houses are cheaper to own here compared to first tier cities like Beijing. Although they’ve not taken a train at the nearby Nantal station and they believe there may be more facilities in the future. The timeline for when many of the train lines, which cost trillions of yen to build will turn profitable remains unclear. What’s obvious, they’ve driven China’s economic development over the past two decades, and it may continue to be so in the decades to come. [Music] This is Tokyo’s OE depot, an operations hub for Japan’s iconic bullet trains or Shinkansen. It’s where the trains flying the world’s oldest high-speed rail line between Tokyo and Osaka wait to undergo maintenance or to be dispatched for service. As the train nears, the maintenance crew doesn’t waste a beat getting into action. Working from nighttime till daybreak, Mizuki Inokoshi and his partner have to check its 16 train cars fast. [Music] This depot is one of four owned and run by Japanese rail operator JR Central. It’s labor intensive with 160 staff handling train inspection here. JR Central workers check signals, electricity circuits, cars, doors, brakes, and the body of the train every two days. Transport authorities perform a similar inspection every 45 days and also take apart some parts including wheels and brakes every 20 months for a detailed examination. All components are expected thoroughly about once in 40 months or after the Shinkansen has traveled 1.6 6 million km. 26-year-old Mr. Inokoshi joined JR Central after graduating with an aerospace degree. His work a childhood dream and a source of pride. But even then, the high pressure environment can take a toll. Services are increased during peak periods. During Japan’s Golden Week from the 25th of April to 6th of May, nearly 4.4 million passengers took the Tokai doansen line linking Tokyo and Osaka, up 5% from last year. Even on regular days, ridership is rising as inbound tourism booms. While operator JR Central is able to cope, the aging rail infrastructure, now more than 60 years old, is accelerating the need for change. As I find out, the famous Dr. Yellow inspection train detects faults as it speeds along the tracks. But JR Central stopped using it in January. Its technology overtaken by faster passenger trains with diagnostic capabilities. We are looking at cuttingedge technologies such as AI or robotics that are emerging every day. Now we are developing an automatic train operation system or automated inspection system. JR Central hopes that by stationing itself to harness new technology, this can alleviate a labor crunch. As Japan’s workforce shrinks due to falling birth rates,
Japanese working population is expected to decline by 20% in 20 years. In reaction to these issues, in 2021, we launched a business reform program. This could also cut cost by as much as 550 million US over the next 10 to 15 years. Structures such as pillars and tunnels and quakerprone Japan need to be reinforced as rail infrastructure ages. This threatens to drive up expenses even as operators report a rise in revenue. At the same time, there are ambitious and pricey plans to reinvent the wheel. The Shinkansen line connecting Tokyo and Osaka, a major economic center, cemented Japan’s reputation as a high-speed rail pioneer. And it’s here where the country is making inroads into another innovation, the superconducting magv known locally as the Chu Shinkansen. It aims to have travel time for the 515 km journey between the two major cities to 67 minutes. The train is magnetically levitated, eliminating the need for wheels. Without friction between wheels and rails, it can go faster than conventional railways. And I’m about to experience exactly how fast it is. And the media test ride. We went back and forth along a 42.8 km long test track called the Yamanashi Magalive line where it swiftly hit speeds of up to 500 km per hour. It once recorded 603 km per hour a decade ago, shattering world records. 5.1 million km of test runs have been logged as of January. But while the technology is ready, the tunnels are not on track. The first phase of mag operations between Tokyo and Nagagoya, a manufacturing powerhouse, was set to begin in 2027, but this is being pushed back to 2034 or later, according to local media due to environmental impact concerns. Operator JR Central says Japan needs the maginkansen already plies the route. aging deterioration or major earthquakes. So it is necessary to have a dual system between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. That’s the purpose of the MAG Shinkansen. Estimated costs for the first leg have ballooned to 7.04 trillion yen or 48 billion US. At the same time, regional rivals such as China are challenging Japan for dominance in highspeed rail technology. [Music] Tokyo is trailing Beijing and exporting its systems due to reasons like high cost and the need for dedicated shinkansen tracks. While it’s making inroads into India, a project in the US from Dallas to Houston in Texas is still waiting for the green light from the Trump administration despite overcoming regulatory issues. According to JR Central, US regulation prohibits us from mean bringing Shinkansen into Texas. Therefore, I had a lot of discussion with federal agencies to make a new rule for Shinkansen safety. With challenges mounting, Japan’s famous Shinkansen is at a crossroads as it aims to redefine speed and the future of transport. Heat. Heat. [Music]

China and Japan’s high-speed rail networks helped fast-track economic growth and are a source of national pride. But speed bumps threaten to slow further expansion.

Rapid construction of rail lines in China left its operator with a significant debt load. Only seven routes are turning a profit, while the cost of building new stations has risen. Some underutilised stations were shut and remained unused for years – until recently. Can their reopening spur local development and bring returns on infrastructure investment?

Japan pioneered high-speed rail in 1964 with its now iconic shinkansen. Sixty years on, the infrastructure is ageing and operators face mounting obstacles such as high costs and a labour crunch. This threatens to derail ambitious plans to reinvent the wheel, such as the launch of the super high-speed maglev and the export of shinkansen technology.

Can these Asian powerhouses put high-speed rail development back in the fast lane, or will they risk veering off track?

00:00 Introduction
00:18 Investigating China’s “ghost stations”
04:30 Flip side of the “Chinese miracle”
07:25 “Ghost stations” come back to life
11:53 Hopes for local economic recovery
14:23 Inside a depot for Japan’s iconic shinkansen
17:20 “Doctor Yellow” inspection train and the drive for change
19:01 Future of high-speed rail: levitating train?

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