Jinan onwards

Working on a Jinan rail map. Mapping the direct destinations from Jinan.

Joho maps give a good overview, but the detail isnt evident.

china-mor also have detailed maps, if a little busy.

Jinan is a VERY busy station, it runs a 24 hour operation, its of the main  way to shanghai so all night trains from northern china pass through.

Overnight to save some pennies…

http://www.cnvol.com/train-4/en-937.htm

K172/173, Qingdao – Jinan – Xiian, 1857 – 1028+1, 1179km,

K208/205, Qingdao – Jinan – Chengdu, 2104-0531, or

D157, Jinan to Zhengzhou, 1822 – 2333, 668km

Of course this would missout entirely on Shanghai.

on to Shanghai

Jinan is 400km into the Beijing-Shanghai railway.

The new dedicated high speed railway should be finished by 2013.

This is also domain of the CRH 2E running the D301/302 & D305/6 services, unfortunately they run non-stop from Beijing.

• 1400km in 14hours,
• 2130-0730

CRH2E Formation

The 2E has a fixed 16 carriage formation.

• ZE, Soft Sitter, 2+2 Seating
• WR, Sleeper, 4 berth Cabin
  • Cabins have individual TV’s fitted
• CA, Dining
• Capacity 520 sleeping, 110 sitting 630

CRH2E Quirky Testing

When the VSOE ran again in the 1980’s from London to the Sea they tested the stability of the train by putting a glass of water in the drivers cabin, dont spill it during dinner. To test the CRH2E they used a cigarette.

They apparently sat at the table, lit a cigarette whilst the train was underway, no ash fell on the table so it passed the test! (http://www.jfdaily.com/news/xwsh/200812/t20081217_481240.htm)

Jinan to Shanghai

T105 is the overnight service starting in Jinan and running to Shanghai

T105 | Jinan-Shanghai | 2110-0613 | 968 km

T105 is entirely comprised of YW hard and RW soft sleepers possibly with a CA buffet.

Qingdao – Jinan

Qingdao, full of history and tourism.

Its one of the few places to still have Trolley Buses.

The railway station has been rebuilt in time for the olympics.

The city runs with an extensive network of trolley & ordinary buses.

There are future plans to expand the network to include subways.

Chinese Sites: Qingdao Government

Locally Published Train Timetable. Bus Timetable

Planning images

The history of Qingdao is interesting and varied. It was home to Germans during the 19th century and even house the US western pacific headquarters immediately after WW2.

The line between Qingdao and Jinan is a mix of freight and passenger lines. Since the introduction of the 200km/h CRH line doesn’t exactly have a segregated passenger route all the way but where upgrades have been made the line can be seen gently curving around smaller towns.

Journey time on a CRH train is in the order of 2h 50m, distance is about 400km. About 12 trains a day make the trip, 6 more go on to Beijing.

Jinan station like many chinese stations is quite grand on the inside. The low curve of the roof is interesting, high curves were popular during the steam era, with electric engines roof shape you like.

Jinan is the middle of the Beijing – Shanghai, Jinghu railway. 4 parallel lines for most of the way, it is also being upgraded to 300km/h running.

If you were to believe everything that the Ministry of Railways says everything is on track for 380km/h trains by 2012, the reality is that the CRH system has been built very rapidly, they have a shortage of rollingstock. The running speed will more likely be around 300km/h and given the cities along the way average speed will be lower again.

Jinan to Qingdao (Jiaoji Passenger Line) was intended as a 200-250km/h line, running times put it at 150km/h.

What they have achieved is amazing, their 15 year plan for the network is something the world can look to as a guide to getting the population mobile.

Example: D604 CRH timetable

D604	Qingdao	10:17
D604	Weifang	11:24
D604	Qingzhou	—–
D604	Zibo	12:02
D604	Jinan	13:09

China Exit Strategy

As well as to see China the end goal is to get out again.

With such a big country there are only a handful of crossings. Routes out include…

• 3 to Russia (red)
  • Suifenhe, train 401/402, N23/24
  • Huchun Port, freight railway only
  • Manzhouli, trans-Manchurian branch of the trans-Siberian, K19/20 or K7023/7024?
• 2 to Vietnam (blue)
  • Pingxiang, T5/6, T871/872
  • Hong Ha, Narrow Gauge disused
• 1 to Kazakhstan (yellow)
  • K9795/9796, K9797/9798
    
• 3 to North Korea (black)
  • Dandong, K27/28
  • Jian, Freight
  • Tumen, Freight (mainly coal)
• 1 to Mongolia (black)
  • Erenhot, K3/4, K23/24, K89/90, 4652/4653, 4654/4651

Of course with the booming development they have planned for just a couple more.

• 1 to Laos
• 1 to Burma
• 1 more to Kazakhstan

And some rumours of links to..

• Pakistan
• India
• Tajikistan
• and Taiwan

Future lines

Formatting

A problem. I want to add some metadata to posts, not just tags. Tags with values like price:$100 or time:5h44m. Ok sure I could use a database but that is overdoing it for my needs and kinds steers the data towards a rigid structure. Rigid is not what I had in mind I want the nice loose thought style like a mind map.
Alterately I could use psedo data like a $100 tag and 1h tag. Round the numbers out.
Another idea is a formatted table possibly linked to a google doc? Again the value of the data doesn’t warrant the use of that kind of structure

Incheon Ferry – China

Incheon has quite a few international ferry destinations.

International ferry Site (Korean)

All sites warn of congestion at the terminals and to arrive 2-3 hours before departure.

Most lines have 3 weekly departures.

Shortest journey is 12 hours, longest is 25hrs.

Almost all are car ferries.

Fares range from AUD$100 for basic economy to AUD$360 for a double bed.

Weidong company have an english site.

Only problem is where to go.

The Shangdong region has the most frequent services to Qingdao, Weihai & Yantai

dep Incheon 1900

arr Qingdao 0900

Qingdao is the bigger and better connected of the 3. Accessible 3 times a week with the Weidong company

Seoul – Incheon

Almost a suburb of Seoul…

2 rail routes into Incheon from seoul, one is a traditional subway route linking to the suburban route, the other a suburban railway.

• Incheon subway
• Interactive Subway Map Line 1

From Seoul station you can travel to Incheon on line one in around 60-70 mins.

The central station in Incheon are Dongincheon on Line 1 and Bupyeong (to transfer to the Incheon subway)

Looking at your average station they dont seem to have the same architecture as the rest of Asia. Most have been built after 1970 and are much more functional than fasionable.

The subway system seems to also have been built without too much fashion in mind, although recent refurbishments of both rollingstock and stations stand out as fine creative examples.

These old designs are possily due to the way development took off after the Korean war. Rapid development doesnt usually go with nice design, especially during the 1970s. Very little of pre-war stations exist, fewer stand out. The notable exception is the facade of the old Seoul Station.

Bus routes to the ferry terminal.

The closest station is still around 15km from the ferry terminal, too far to walk. However there are regular buses.

Bus info is a little harder to come by.

Thankfully a wonderful public transport guide exists.

http://traffic.visitkorea.or.kr/lang/en

You can view it in Firefox, however you may need to end up in IE to view the interactive maps

There are 2 International Ferry terminals (http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TR/TR_EN_5_1_5_2.jsp)

Servicing Terminal 1 are Blue buses  12 14 24 33 36 720

Servicing Terminal 2 are Blue buses 23 24 17-1 3-1

Most routes run at 5-10 min intervals all day.

Journey time is about 15-20 mins from Dongdicheon Station

and about 60 mins from Bupyeong station or City Hall station.

The Brunel Awards

Reading through I came across an international award, the Brunel Awards for design in the Railway industry. Although it is open internationally, it would be more accurate to say it encompases Europe and Asia. The Watford Group run the awards every 2-3 years at their annual conference. There are 4 categories:

• Stations
• Industrial design, Graphics and Art
• Technical Infrastructure and Environment
• Rolling Stock

In 2008 there were 15 awards given. Probably the best know is the St Pancras International terminal. It was also a subject of a Grand Designs special, The 800 Million Pound Railway Station, in 2007 on BBC One.