Destinations Known | China, Japan – and now Indonesia – lead the charge on high-speed rail, while the UK, where the world’s first intercity trains ran, chugs along in their dust

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was a world first. Today, the UK could learn from Asia about building high-speed rail links

Meanwhile, a recent survey says it’s cheaper to stay in a hotel room than an Airbnb in many cities, pointing out a US$55 average saving in Hong Kong

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Intercity rail services were first seen in the UK in 1830, but today Asia is showing the world how to build and run high-speed rail lines, such as the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (the line’s Tegalluar station is seen above) in Indonesia. Photo: Xinhua

Mark Footer

Published: 7:45am, 12 Oct 2023

In September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed and built by George Stephenson, launched the first intercity service in the world. It was financially successful, too, and was used as a model for railway construction across Britain.

Almost two centuries later, Stephenson and other British train pioneers and inventors – the likes of Richard Trevithick, Matthew Murray and William Hedley – must be turning in their graves, seeing the inability of the current British government to take the High Speed 2 (HS2) line all the way back to Manchester.

After more than a decade of planning, wrangling and investment – even a bit of construction – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on October 4 that the Birmingham-Manchester leg of Britain’s second high-speed railway would no longer go ahead.

That followed the scrapping in 2021 of the leg that was planned to operate from Birmingham up to Leeds. Now, assuming no more cancellations, HS2 will run only between London and Birmingham, and be operational by … well, that’s anyone’s guess, but the wide time frame of 2029-2033 has been mentioned.

Part of the Anhai Bay cross-sea bridge along the Fuzhou-Xiamen-Zhangzhou high-speed railway in southeast China’s Fujian province. Photo: Xinhua/Jiang Kehong

Meanwhile, Asia continues to show the Brits how high-speed rail – generally defined as having trains that travel at 200km/h (124mph) or more – is done.