A new railway in China’s Qinghai province officially opened on November 28 following the completion of the 206km Qingbaijiang - Zhenjiangguan pass line.
Construction of the 200km/h line has been extremely complex, given the alpine landscape more than 2000m above sea level, the need to cross several seismically active fault zones, roads, and rivers, and various other geographical challenges as well as poor road conditions, which hampered transport of machinery and materials to site.
In addition, the railway required the construction of a 12.8km tunnel through porous, fine-grained shale and slate.
China Railway is operating nine pairs of EMUs on the line each day, offering an end-to-end journey time of 1h 26min.
It connects with the Chengdu - Qingbaijiang east, and Haixi - Xining sections, which have already been completed. Work on the 140km Zhenjiangguan - Haixi section remains underway and is due to open in 2024, when it will provide a through service on the 836km line between Sichuan and Qinghai provinces.
The Sichuan - Qinghai railway is part of China’s “eight vertical and eight horizontal” high-speed network, and will ultimately connect the very remote Qinghai plateau with the southern Pearl River Delta region centred on Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macao and Hong Kong.
China has emphasised the need for development of the isolated province to a region traditionally home to nomadic herdsmen and horse-breeding as a reason to build the railway, but Qinghai is also rich in oil, gas, and coal, and the infrastructure needed to exploit such resources is currently insufficient.
A Sichuan province official has said that the completed railway is expected to boost tourism, with the region expected to welcome 50 million visitors in 2024.
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