The growth of China’s high speed train network continues unabated. Latest in date is a 293-km section on the new line linking Shanghai to Chengdu in Sichuan.
YICHANG – The Hanyi Railway, a section of a major high-speed rail corridor between the eastern metropolis of Shanghai and southwest China’s city of Chengdu, opened on Sunday, July 1st. The 293-km Hanyi Railway links Wuhan and Yichang, two large cities in central China’s Hubei province. The railway reduces travel time between the cities to one hour and 39 minutes, said Yang Tao, an official with the Wuhan railway bureau. The Hanyi Railway is part of the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu Railway, or Huhanrong Railway, a major east-west high-speed rail corridor outlined in China’s national high-speed railway development plan.
The 2,078-km railway will travel though four provinces and two municipalities, connecting the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu. Most sections of the Huhanrong Railway are in operation, with construction on the last section slated to be completed by next year.
In another development, China also continues the construction of the world’s highest railway which links Tibet’s capital Lhasa to the region’s second largest city, Xigaze. The Lhasa-Xigaze railway is the first extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that opened in July 2006. The 253-km new line will pass through five counties and the 90-km-long Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. Construction began in September 2010, with a budget of 13.3 billion yuan (1.95 billion U.S. dollars).
The new line is due to completion by 2015. It is considered as one of the plateau region’s key construction projects for the 2011-2015 period. The new rail link, plus a new airport that opened in November, will play a vital role in boosting tourism and accelerating the transport of natural resources. Tibet will start building another extension of the plateau railway, from Lhasa to Nyingchi, in the next five years, according to the region’s plan for economic and social development in the 2011-2015 period.
Source: Xinhua
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