Responsible for overseeing investment in China's high-speed rail network, Mr Liu came under investigation for allegedly embezzling funds.
BBC: Ex China rail minister Liu Zhijun charged with corruption
For the Conservatives, Alex Johnstone welcomed the commitment in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition negotiations to establish a high-speed rail network.
China is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on its high-speed rail network - it's already the biggest in the world.
The announcement of the planned route of the HS2 high-speed rail network.
China is currently expanding its high-speed rail network across the vast country.
In time, all seven emirates -- and all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -- will be linked by a coastal high-speed rail network.
So we now have projects in 31 states that are laying the ground for the first high-speed rail network in the United States of America.
But you only have to study the experience of Japan, France, Spain and Germany to see the benefits that a high-speed rail network can bring.
The government has had a change of heart about rapidly expanding the high-speed rail network following a fatal crash of two high-speed trains in July.
The local airport is being joined to the high-speed rail network.
We would have favored a speed-up of necessary infrastructure spending, in place of the president's blue-sky fantasy of a high-speed rail network in the 2020s or 2030s.
To build the infrastructure of tomorrow, we're investing in expanded broadband access and health information technology, clean energy facilities and the first high-speed rail network in America.
Thailand revised plans for the development of a high-speed rail network that would have connected Bangkok to Malaysia in the south and Laos to the north and to China beyond.
Now the world's second-largest economy, and flush with cash, China has built the world's longest high-speed rail network -- boasting more than 8, 300 kilometers (5, 100 miles) of routes -- in a few short years.
China already has the world's fastest long-range passenger train (the "Harmony" averages 220mph on the Guangzhou-Wuhan route, compared with 170mph for France's TGV), and soon expects to have the world's largest high-speed rail network too.
But there are many here who now fear the high-speed rail network may turn out to be a white elephant, too expensive, saddled with massive debts that it will never pay off - a wealth destroyer not a wealth generator.
China's central government conceded late last year that China's high-speed-rail-network expansion had gone too fast.
What's more, legislation approved by the European Union last year that requires national rail systems to open up to operators from other countries by 2010, will further push development of a European network of high-speed rail.
With that kind of money you could entirely build out a national network of true high-speed rail.
The Association of Train Operating Companies and the Campaign for Better Transport said the high-speed rail link was vital, but it should not come at the expense of investment in the rest of the rail network.
Despite having to slow its originally rapid expansion plans, China recently increased its budget for railway investment this year by 16% and expects to lay 13, 000 km of high-speed rail by January 2013 -- more than the combined rail network installed across all Western countries over the past half-century.
The HS2 network, which will link Manchester to Birmingham and London via high-speed rail, will enter the city through a 7.5 mile (12km) tunnel.
If plans for new high-speed routes across Britain are agreed, the earliest construction could begin is 2014, says Network Rail.
And there would be a 15-year priority programme of improvements to the rail network, including the introduction of high speed links between London, Heathrow Airport, Birmingham and Manchester.
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