National Railway Administration: Formulate a carbon peak action plan for the railway industry to promote low-carbon transformation

On January 19, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport jointly held a press conference on the development plan of the "14th Five-Year Plan" modern comprehensive transportation system. The relevant responsible persons of six departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport, explained the key points of the plan in detail. Among them, Wang Zhonggang, director of the Department of Science and Technology and Legal Affairs of the State Railway Administration and spokesman of the State Railway Administration, said in response to a question from a reporter from China Securities News that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the railway industry should benchmark the national "double carbon" strategic goal, formulate a carbon peak action plan for the railway industry, and promote the low-carbon transformation of the railway field.

The "14th Five-Year Plan" national railway planning and construction focuses on five aspects

In response to a question from a reporter from China Securities News, Wang Zhonggang said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the railway industry should fully implement the concept of comprehensive transportation development, implement the tasks of this plan, deploy and promote high-quality development, and strive to be a pioneer in the new era. Promote related work mainly from the following five aspects.

The first is to find out the positioning of railway development and strengthen the overall planning and coordination. In promoting the "14th Five-Year Plan" railway development plan and the revision of medium- and long-term railway network planning, do a good job of top-level design and overall planning, and promote the organic connection and coordination of special railway planning and this plan.

The second is to build a modern railway network and accelerate the promotion of key tasks. Strengthen the construction of national strategic backbone channels, accelerate the construction of the main channel of the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway, orderly expand regional high-speed rail connection lines, actively promote the planning and construction of intercity railways in key urban agglomerations and urban (suburban) railways in metropolitan areas with a high degree of urbanization, and accelerate the construction of an integrated comprehensive transportation hub system.

The third is to give full play to the advantages of the backbone of the railway and improve the quality of transportation services. Accelerate the development of "four network integration" and build a railway passenger service network with clear levels, green safety, integration, fast and smooth, and cost-effective. Actively develop specialized transportation such as high-speed rail express transportation, cold chain, and commodity automobile transportation. Give full play to the advantages of the combination of "railway network + Internet" to improve the level of railway digitalization.

The fourth is to give full play to the comparative advantages of railways and promote green and low-carbon development. Benchmark the national "double carbon" strategic goal, formulate a carbon peak action plan for the railway industry, and promote the low-carbon transformation of the railway field. Promote the accelerated development of multimodal transport such as molten iron, iron sea, and iron and air, and vigorously promote the transfer of bulk goods and medium- and long-distance cargo transportation to railways. Improve the container multimodal transport system and build a backbone channel network for container transportation. Promote the construction of railways in important port areas, logistics parks, key industrial and mining enterprises, and strategic reserve depots, and open up the "front and back kilometers" of railway transportation.

The fifth is to promote railway scientific and technological innovation and improve the overall efficiency of the industry.

Zhao Changjiang, deputy director of the Development and Reform Department of the State Railway Group, said that by the end of 2021, the operating mileage of railways in the country has exceeded 150,000 kilometers, of which more than 40,000 kilometers are high-speed railways. Combined with the arrangement of projects under construction and proposed construction, it is expected that the total scale of investment in fixed assets of the national railway in the "14th Five-Year Plan" will be comparable to that of the "13th Five-Year Plan" and will continue to maintain a stable trend.

Zhao Changjiang said that the focus of the national railway planning and construction in the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" mainly focuses on five aspects: First, to promote the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway with high quality; second, to focus on filling the "blank space" of the western railway; third, to speed up the improvement of the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network; fourth, to expand the coverage of the general speed railway network in an orderly manner; and fifth, to actively promote the development of intercity railways and urban (suburban) railways in urban agglomerations.

According to the planning plan, it is expected that by the end of 2025, the operating mileage of national railways will reach about 165,000 kilometers, of which high-speed railways (including some intercity railways) will be about 50,000 kilometers, covering more than 95% of cities with a population of more than 500,000, basically forming a "national 123 high-speed rail travel circle".

The construction drawings of the "14th Five-Year Plan" highway airport emerged

In the field of highways, Xu Chengguang, chief planner of the Ministry of Transport and director of the Department of Comprehensive Planning, said that it is expected to complete the investment in transportation fixed assets of about 3.58 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 3.1% year-on-year. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the mileage of highways increased by about 300,000 kilometers, and the number of high-grade waterways inland rivers increased by about 2,400 kilometers. Promote the proportion of ordinary national highways in the western region of secondary and above highways to 70%, and promote the proportion of hardened roads in natural villages (groups) with large population sizes to exceed 85%. By 2025, promote about 100 rural logistics service brands nationwide; achieve a railway inlet rate of more than 70% in important port areas of coastal ports, and an 80% rail transit access rate at hub airports. Accelerate the development of passenger intermodal transportation, and organize pilot projects of passenger intermodal transportation in 50 cities. Guide and standardize the healthy development of online ride-hailing, shared bicycles, and car time-sharing.

In addition, Han Jun, director of the Development Planning Department of the Civil Aviation Administration, said that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, civil aviation will continue to increase investment, accelerate the reconstruction and expansion of hub airports, focus on improving the comprehensive support capacity of hub airports, rationally encrypt the layout of airports, steadily build regional airports and professional cargo hub airports, and focus on encrypting airports in the central and western regions and border areas. By 2025, the number of civil transport airports will reach more than 270, and 40 new runways will be added. Promote the deep integration of airports and various modes of transportation, form a number of modern comprehensive transportation hubs with airports as the core, and achieve the planning goal of more than 80% of the rail access rate of hub airports. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, civil aviation will take better service to the major national regional strategies and regional coordinated development strategies as the goal, accelerate the construction of four world-class airport clusters such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle, enhance the function of international hubs, enhance the network support function of regional hubs, and promote the high-quality development of the airport economy. (Liu Liliang)

Source: China Securities News