Railway spending booms as China earmarks US$104.5 billion in 2013

CHINA is to spend US$104.5 billion on railway expansion building to lay down 52,000 kilometres of track, which stacks up to be the nation's third-largest investment ever.

Last year, China's railways saw an increase in passengers by 4.8 per cent to 1.9 billion while cargo levelled off at close to 3.9 million tons, reports Beijing's Caixin financial news service.

According to a report from China Economic Review, the expansion is based on the recovery in railway infrastructure investment in the last quarter 2012, and subject to economic adjustments, said a Railway Ministry official.

Investment slowed in the last two years after the 2009 spending boom of $113.3 billion. In 2011, investment slowed down due to scandals within the ministry and bad press on the bullet train crash that killed 41 people.