Travel Via High Speed Rail

Travel to and between foreign destinations for you timeshare owners and those of you who enjoy visiting foreign countries via timeshare exchanges, may just be getting easier. High speed rail travel is a current hot topic in government circles from China to Great Britain. Those of you who like to take timeshare vacations in the U.S. may also find high speed train travel coming your way.

The most ambitious high speed rail plans have just been announced by China. On the drawing board are high speed lines from Beijing to none other than Europe. Two routes are being considered, one that will pass through India, Pakistan and the Middle East, terminating in London, making that trip in just two days. The other is intended to go to Germany via Russia. China also plans to build a third high speed line extending south, connecting Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia. Work on that line has already begun.

Even though the Beijing to Europe plans may sound unrealistic, they are more than pie-in-the-sky ideas. Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, states, “We have already carried out the prospecting and survey work for the European network, and central and eastern European countries are keen for us to start."

Meanwhile, the good news for those of you who enjoy timeshare trips to China is that China has already started criss-crossing its own country with high speed rail service. The Wuhan – Guangzhou passenger-dedicated line is now in service, cutting the journey time between the capitals of Hubei and Guangdong provinces to under 3 hours compared with 10 hours on the old route.

Proposals for high speed rail travel in England are being drawn up with the intention that the network would feature 200mph trains and cut journey times to the north of Britain in half. A recently released report details a route for the first stage of a north-south high speed line from London to the West Midlands. It includes options for extending the link further north, to northwest England, the east Midlands, Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland, making excursions through England and up to Scotland easy for timeshare vacationers.

Even America stands poised to join other nations in creating a high speed rail travel infrastructure. In February, 2010, President Obama announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is awarding $8 billion to states across the country to develop America’s first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. This commitment means that a day may soon come when you will not have to rely on the increasingly expensive airlines, or tiring long drives, to reach your timeshare vacation destination.

(Photo provided by mobility.siemens.com)
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