First Two Months Exceed 70 Billion Yuan! Railway Investment Maintains High-Level Operations

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Railway Group”) recently announced that from January to February this year, the national railway completed fixed asset investments of 72.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. High-quality and efficient railway construction is progressing, injecting new momentum into regional economic and social development.

China Railway Group stated that since the beginning of the year, railway construction has been advancing with high quality and efficiency. During the Spring Festival holiday, over 570 key railway projects across the country continued construction, with tens of thousands of workers on the front lines, making positive progress on a number of major engineering projects.

Domestic demand has become the main driver and stabilizing anchor of China’s economic growth.

At the press conference held by the State Council Information Office on March 5, Chen Changsheng, a member of the drafting team of the “Government Work Report” and Deputy Director of the Research Office of the State Council, said that in 2026, “stabilizing investment” will mainly focus on three aspects.

Chen Changsheng specifically mentioned that 2026 marks the beginning of the “14th Five-Year Plan.” The draft outline of the “14th Five-Year Plan” has planned 109 major projects, and will adhere to the principle that “funds follow projects.” Currently, some funds have difficulty finding projects, but these projects are already planned and are mature major projects, which will also have a significant pulling effect.

On the morning of January 4, the China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. held a work meeting in Beijing. Liu Wei, Minister of Transport, stated that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, efforts should be made to accelerate the improvement of a modern comprehensive transportation system, leverage the advantages of railways as the backbone and main mode of transportation, and achieve major breakthroughs in key tasks related to building a strong transportation nation.

Liu Wei also said that efforts should be made to accurately grasp the development requirements of railways during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, based on the phased characteristics of transportation development and the main focus of “One Network, Four Transformations,” and to carefully plan and compile the group’s “14th Five-Year Plan.” The construction of major railway projects should be accelerated, focusing on network expansion and strengthening, promoting the connectivity of the “Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal” high-speed rail corridors, and enhancing the capacity of conventional railway trunk lines.

Prior to this, the Central Economic Work Conference held on December 10-11, 2025, clearly listed “maintaining domestic demand as the main driver and building a strong domestic market” as the primary task for 2026’s economic work, and deployed several specific measures such as “promoting investment stabilization.”

On December 16, 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the “Management Measures for Central Budgetary Investment in Railway Projects,” which mentioned strengthening technical and economic feasibility studies and investment benefit analysis for railway projects, reasonably determining the capital contribution ratio, and supporting sustainable project operation.

The “Measures” specify that, depending on the nature and region of the railway project, the scale of financial support will be calculated at different ratios. Projects in special areas such as Tibet, the Southern Xinjiang four prefectures and counties, and other Tibetan-involved regions may use full capital contributions, while projects in other eastern, central-western, and northeastern regions will consider capital contribution ratios of 50% and 70% of the total investment (actual project capital ratios below these standards will be calculated accordingly).

In the “Focus on Expanding Effective Investment” document published by the National Development and Reform Commission in December 2025, it was emphasized to further promote private investment development. Efforts will be made to address difficulties in private investment by expanding access, removing bottlenecks, and strengthening guarantees, thereby promoting high-quality private sector development. A long-term mechanism for private enterprises to participate in major project construction will be improved, actively supporting private enterprises to participate in profitable projects in key areas such as railways, nuclear power, and hydropower.

At the local level, media reports show that many regions have recently held meetings or introduced policies to promote transportation infrastructure development.

The Zhejiang provincial government recently issued the “Several Opinions on Deepening Reform of Railway, Highway, and Airport Investment and Financing,” proposing 25 major measures to improve the sustainable development mechanism of major transportation infrastructure. Regarding railways, the “Opinions” mention that new projects will be jointly funded by provincial and local city/county governments, and branch lines serving ports will, in principle, be funded by port enterprises and local governments. Railway operation subsidies will mainly be borne by cities and counties.

On February 26, Anhui Province’s Development and Reform Commission held a provincial railway construction investment work meeting. The meeting pointed out that this year marks the start of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” and the railway sector should maintain a “sprint at the start of the year” attitude, fully tackling project construction difficulties, accelerating resumption of work and production, strengthening element guarantees, and promoting quality and efficiency in railway construction investment through extraordinary measures.

Wang Peng, deputy researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told Jiemian News that from a macro perspective, railway investment, with its long industrial chain and wide radiation, creates a multiplier effect through the “investment-construction-consumption” chain: upstream driving traditional industries like steel and building materials, downstream activating tourism and logistics services, and optimizing transportation networks to reduce overall social logistics costs, creating conditions for consumption upgrades and industrial synergy.

Additionally, Wang Peng stated that as a national strategic corridor, railways play a key role in energy supply security and regional coordinated development. Its investment direction is directly related to industrial chain security and regional development balance, serving as an important support for building a new development pattern.