Yangtze River high-speed rail research underway

Research is underway on the construction of a new high-speed railway along the Yangtze River, which will shorten travel time between Shanghai and Chengdu from 13 hours to 7 hours.

Hubei's province's Department of Transport signed a strategic cooperation agreement last week with the Wuhan Railway Bureau, proposing that construction of the high-speed rail along the river's Hubei section begin soon.

The agreement follows a move by China Railway Design Corp in July to launch research on a Yangtze railway - a move announced on Anhui province's website. The proposals must be reviewed by national authorities.

Current high-speed rail trips between Shanghai and Chengdu take at least 13 hours. The new line will cut the time in half time from eastern coastal areas to China's inland southwest, according a report in Hubei Daily.

Passengers will be able to travel from Wuhan, Hubei's capital, to Shanghai in about three hours, to Chongqing in about two hours and to Chengdu in about three hours, the paper said.

The paper quoted the railway authority saying that the new line will go through Hubei province from Macheng to Enshi. Macheng links Anhui to the east, while Enshi connects Chongqing to the west. Construction of the Jingmen-Yichang section in Hubei would begin in 2018.

According to Anhui, the high-speed line will link Wuhan, Hefei, Nanjing and Shanghai with trains that can run at 350 kilometers per hour. The railway design company will conduct a feasibility study to answer detailed questions, including the technology standards to be met and the order of construction. Study results will help inform national policymakers.

China issued a national railway development plan in July, 2016, envisioning eight lines from south to north and another eight lines east to west. The coastal line along the Yangtze River is one of the east-west links. Under the plan, the coastal line will pass Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu, and serve as a major line linking eastern, central and southwestern China.

According to the Anhui website, the operating speed of the current high-speed line from Wuhan to Nanjing is 250 km per hour. The new line, with a higher speed of 350 km/h, will provide a better link between central China and coastal areas, it said.

China is the only country with trains running as fast as 350 km/h. As of the end of 2016, China's high-speed network had 22,000 km of rails, accounting for 65 percent of the world's total high-speed rail operations.