A Sobering Perspective on China's High Speed Rail

Craig Pirrong submits:

Those who think that Chinas massive investment in high-speed rail should be emulated here (now who would that be?) should find this report sobering (but probably wont):

Chinas Ministry of Railways has racked up more than $200 billion in debt, government auditors say, partly because of aggressive expansion of the countrys high-speed rail network. Experts say high ticket prices mean many of the trains on the new Wuhan-Guangzhou line run empty. Those questions are even more pertinent now with the revelation this week that the railways ministry under Mr. Lius stewardship has run up debts possibly in excess of 2 trillion yuan, or roughly $303 billion.The Global Times, citing a report from the National Audit Office, said in its Wednesday edition that Chinas Ministry of Railways was 1.3 trillion yuan in debt in 2009, with 854.8 billion yuan in short-term debt and 448.6 billion yuan in long-term debt. The paper


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