First full length Yangtze River railway open to traffic

A NEW rail line connecting western and central China city Yichang and Wanzhou is now open to traffic, the first time a railway has gone that far up the Yangtze, Xinhua reports.

The trial run showed that, with the new railway, the fastest travelling time between Yichang and Wanzhou is less than three hours, while the time of going from Wuhan to Chongqing is now slashed by nearly half compared to using the Xiangfan-Chongqing railway.

According to the estimation from the railway departments, in its first year of operation, the railway can divert about 3.7 million tonnes of cargo from the city of Enshi in Hubei province alone. The figure is predicted to surpass 10 million tonnes in three to five years.

Starting construction in December 2003, the Yichang-Wanzhou railway is said to be the hardest railway ever to build in China because of difficult terrain, 70 per cent of which is comprised of bridges and tunnels. Its cost is also the highest ever in China with about CNY60 million (US$9.1 million) per kilometre, twice that of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

China plans next step to connect the line to the Wuhan-Yichang and Chongqing-Lichuan railway which are currently being built, hence travelling time between Wuhan and Chongqing will be reduced to five hours, and trains running from Chengdu and Chongqing at dawn can reach Shanghai at dusk.
(Source:www.schednet.com)