Although being huge by any measure Chinese Railways are a bottleneck for economic growth in
China. The state-owned enterprise returns a small profit but is severely capacity constrained
and burdened with inefficiency. A comprehensive reform and efficiency improvement program needs
to be developed in order to enable Chinese Railways to support further GDP growth in China.
Application of industrial economics to the case of Chinese Railways suggests that moderate
deregulation of e.g. the freight business could make Chinese Railways fit for future growth.
Operational improvements need to complement this development such as a redesign of the
schedule or the introduction of value added services in the freight business. Based on
interviews with Chinese experts benchmarking with railways in the US Germany Russia and
Japan as well as broad coverage of Chinese-language sources the book makes detailed
recommendations on how to design a comprehensive turnaround program for Chinese Railways.
TOC:Part I: Foundations.- Introduction: China's Need for Efficient Logistics.- The State of
China's Logistics Sector and the Role of Chinese Railways.- Methodology for Analysis of Chinese
Railways.- Part II: The Macro Perspective on Chinese Railways' Efficiency: Railway Reform and
Deregulation.- Chinese Railways' Status Quo.- Approaches to Regulation of Railways.-
Suggestions for Regulation of Chinese Railways.- Part III: The Micro Perspective on Chinese
Railways' Efficiency: Improvement of Operational Effectiveness.- Chinese Railways' Current
Sources of Inefficiency.- Approaches to Railway Efficiency Improvement.- Suggestions for
Improvement of Chinese Railways's Operational Efficiency.- Part IV: Conclusions.
