China is planning to expand its railway network system by building an added 30,000 km of train tracks by the end of 2020, yielding a total of about 150,000 km, the Ministry of Transport announced on Thursday.

Furthermore, about 11,000 km of these railways will be allocated for high-speed trains, extending the high-speed rail to about 30,000 km, Zhang Dawei, deputy head of the ministry's planning department, said.

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"We will accelerate the construction of railways in central and western parts of China. We will also boost the expansion of intercity and suburban rail links," Zhang said, adding that over 80 percent of the cities that have a population of at least 1 million will have high-speed railways by 2020.

On the other hand, Fei Zhirong, an official at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said China will encourage state-owned China Railway Corp to increase bond issuance for the investment, with plans of allocating 800 billion yuan ($119.71 billion) in fixed assets as part of the railway network expansion plan.

Based on the published national railway development plan released by the NDRC, the country's high-speed rail system will reach 38,000 and rail network will extend to 175,000 by 2025.

Noting high-speed railways as strategically important, Wang Xiangqing from Institute of Logistic Economics at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics said that "The government plans to boost industries involved in high-speed rail and turn them into a new economic driving force."

"The new railway development plan encourages private enterprises to invest in railways, which will generate opportunities for them."

However, Fiscal Times noted that China's high-speed railway lines are loss-making, noting that only the Beijing-Shanghai link is gaining profits. It also reported that in May China Railway Corp posted an 8.73 billion yuan ($1.30 billion) deficit between January and March, up 35 percent year-on-year.

But since 2008, high-speed railways have been a mode of transportation of more than 5 billion passengers, and they are increasing by 30 percent annually, China Railway Corp., CRI English reported. Furthermore, there are about 4,200 bullet trains operating on a daily basis in China, with over 4 million passenger trips.

Tagsrailway, railway network, high-speed rail, bullet train