A Comfy Ride.(Brief Article)

Was it really a Chinese train? Instead of a grimy compartment filled with cigarette smoke and watermelon-seed husks, my first-class berth on the new luxury express train from Beijing to Shanghai was actually, well, first class. The two-person compartment had a private washroom, LCD TVs with headphones and wide comfy bunks. Gone were the malodorous communal toilets that made Chinese train travel memorable in years past. My berth was priced the same as an economy-class air ticket--and was clearly aimed at wooing frequent fliers. On this journey, at least, the rail prevailed.

While 1950s America fell in love with private automobiles, communist China embraced trains. Mao Zedong's rail journeys were combination mini-Politburo meetings and clandestine love fests--replete with electronic bugging devices designed to eavesdrop on both sorts of encounters. In the years since, China's state-run rail system has never been eager to improve service or lower prices. Many city dwellers choose air travel instead. Since 1993, for example, the Beijing- Shanghai train route has seen its market share of passenger traffic fall by nearly half.

But now that China is a World Trade Organization member, foreign companies will be allowed full ownership of ...