The role of railroads in shaping modern world history simply cannot be overstated.  Globally, rail is a prime transporter of people.  In the US, however, rail is used mainly for freight and so many think of the age of trains as being in the distant past.  Not so!  Rails carry more than ever before, cheaper and more efficiently than any alternative means of transport, and some at speeds for short trips that rival jet aircraft.  One of the greatest downsides of rail is the difficulty involved in expanding the capacity of the network when it is overburdened because it's difficult, in developed areas especially, to aquire the land for new tracks.  The Chinese government, of course, has considerably less difficulty in overcoming that challenge for the sake of a vital piece of national infrastructure, and especially vital since that how all that coal is moved overland.

From People's Daily Online:

Chinese railways carried 1.53 billion tons of freight in the first half of 2007, up 10.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday.

Coal freight surged 13.3 percent to 750 million tons and oil rose 1.7 percent to 77 million tons.

... On April 18, the country boosted its railway speed for the sixth time and 286 trains now run at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour. [155 miles per hour - ed.]

... China plans to put more than 500 high-speed trains into operation by the end of the year and expects to increase passenger capacity on the nation's 77,000-km of railway routes by 18 percent and freight capacity by 12 percent, according to the ministry.

In 2006, China made up a quarter of the world's total railway transport volume, even though its total track was only 6 percent of the world total.