Foundations -- Introduction: China’s Need for Efficient Logistics -- The State of China’s Logistics Sector and the Role of Chinese Railways -- Methodology for Analysis of Chinese Railways -- The Macro Perspective on Chinese Railways’ Efficiency: Railway Reform and Deregulation -- Chinese Railways’ Status Quo -- Approaches to Regulation of Railways -- Suggestions for Regulation of Chinese Railways -- The Micro Perspective on Chinese Railways’ Efficiency: Improvement of Operational Effectiveness -- Chinese Railways’ Current Sources of Inefficiency -- Approaches to Railway Efficiency Improvement -- Suggestions for Improvement of Chinese Railways’ Operational Efficiency -- Conclusions -- Conclusions.

Although being huge by any measure, Chinese Railways are a bottleneck for economic growth in China. The state-owned enterprise returns a small profit but is severely capacity constrained and burdened with inefficiency. A comprehensive reform and efficiency improvement program needs to be developed in order to enable Chinese Railways to support further GDP growth in China. Application of industrial economics to the case of Chinese Railways suggests that moderate deregulation of e.g., the freight business could make Chinese Railways fit for future growth. Operational improvements need to complement this development, such as a redesign of the schedule or the introduction of value added services in the freight business. Based on interviews with Chinese experts, benchmarking with railways in the US, Germany, Russia, and Japan as well as broad coverage of Chinese-language sources, the book makes detailed recommendations on how to design a comprehensive turnaround program for Chinese Railways.