"China pulls ahead in high-speed rail race"

[WMAveteran]

 This headline and story ('China pulls ahead in high-speed rail race") ran in the 5/12/2010 edition of THE WASHINGTON POST (www.washingtonpost.com/world).  "By 2012, China will have the most miles of high-speed rail worldwide."  Just four years after it began high-speed rail service in 2008, "China will have more high-speed train tracks that the rest of the world combined."  "Many of China's high-speed trains are assembled in Qingdao . . ., in a plant with more than 7,000 workers, including about 2,000 research and design engineers.  The plant rolls out 200 sets of sleek new bullet trains each year, each train set capable of traveling at 217 mph.  According to the article, since 2004 China has invested $220 billion in high-speed rail development while the Obama's administration has provided only $8 billion for high-speed rail investment.