Test running has started on the following new high-speed lines:
- A 139km section of the Lunan high-speed line between Qufu East and Linyi North. The line has eight stations and a maximum speed of 350km/h and will cut the journey time from Linyi to Beijing from 10 hours to 3 hours. The Lunan line will eventually be 494km long comprising a 102km section from Linyi North to Rizhao Kuishan, a 163km extension from Qufu East to Hezedong, and a further 90km section from there to Lankao.
- The Xuhuaiyan railway in Jiangsu Province which runs from Xuzhou to Wuzhou in the west, passes through Suqian and Huai'an, and runs east to Yancheng. It has 10 stations and a design speed of 250km/h.
- The Dongzheng - Huai’an section of the Lianzhen railway has a maximum speed of 250km/h.
- The Zhangchang - Changzhou railway will reduce the Changsha - Zhangjiajie journey time to around 3 hours. It links Chongqing Lijiang in the west with Changde in Hunan in the east and passes through Enshi, Xiangxi and Zhangjiajie. The line has 100 tunnels of which more than 90% are located in the Wuling mountains. There are 187 bridges and the line has a design speed of 200km/h due to the difficult terrain it passes through.
- The Xingwen - Guiyang section of the Chengdu - Guizhou railway has a design speed of 250km/h.
- The Zhanghu high-speed line is the first new high-speed railway in Inner Mongolia and runs from Hohhot East to Zhangjiakou South with a design speed of 250km/h. It will open at the same time as the 141km 250km/h Dazhang line from Datong to Zhangjiakou and the Beijing-Zhangjia high-speed line. The latter is described in China as the world’s first intelligent high-speed railway with a maximum speed of 350km/h, and will play a major role during the Beijing Olympics in 2022. The 174km line runs from Beijing North to Zhangjiakou in Hebei province with an end-to-end journey time of less than one hour. The journey time from Hohhot to Beijing will be shortened from 9 hours to less than 3 hours, while Datong will only be 1h 40min from Beijing compared with 6 hours.
- The 444km Nanchang - Ganzhou section of the Changyi high-speed railway will have 13 stations and a design speed of 350km/h.
- The Zhengwan high-speed railway from Zhengzhou East to Dengzhou East has a design speed of 350km/h and 10 stations.
- The Zhengzhou high-speed railway runs from Zhengzhou South via Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Xuchang in Henan, and connects with the Hangzhou high-speed line at Fuyang West. The design speed is 350km/h.
- The Shanghe Hang high-speed line is expected to open before the end of November. The line runs south from Shangqiu via Fuyang, Hefei, Wuhu, and Zhejiang to Hangzhou. The 350km/h line has 29 stations and will provide an important link between Zhongyuan, Jianghuai and the Yangtze River Delta. Hefei will be within one hour of both Hangzhou and Shangqiu.
- The Zaoyang - Shiyan high-speed line will have 13 stations and a design speed of 350km/h and is aimed tourists as it will serve well known scenic spots such as Wudang Mountain, Yandi Shennong’s Hometown and the Yellow Crane Tower.
For more information about Chinese high-speed projects, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
