High-speed rail to halve Chengdu-Shanghai travel time

A map of the planned Shanghai-Chengdu high-speed railway line. [Photo/WeChat account of Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone]

Authorities have started researching feasible plans on building a high-speed railway line from Shanghai to Chengdu in Sichuan province along the Yangtze River, one of the country's eight important east-to-west high-speed railway tracks.

China Railways Corp, the country's rail operator, and Anhui provincial government are likely to submit a plan to the central government on constructing the Hefei-Nanjing section of the line by the end of August.

The two have agreed to jointly build the section during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), the official WeChat account of Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone reported on Wednesday.

Hubei provincial government has also drawn up plans on building the sections in the Central China's province of the east-to-west line to link cities to the coastal area.

Hubei plans to build a high-speed railway to link Macheng and Enshi as part of the Shanghai-Chengdu line. The Jingmen-Yichang section will be the same line linking Xiangyang, Jingmen and Yichang, which will start construction next year.

According to a medium- and long-term plan to expand railway network approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, last year, China will build eight rail lines north to south, and eight lines east to west.

The high-speed railway line along the Yangtze River will connect 22 cities from Shanghai to Chengdu. The train will have a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

"The line starting from Shanghai, en route Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing to Chengdu, will be built with the standard of 350 km/h, paralleling a passenger-dedicated line from Shanghai to Chengdu," a railway official said.

At the end of 2013, China completed a passenger-dedicated railway line from Shanghai to Chengdu, which takes 14 hours to complete the journey.

The high-speed railway will shorten the time from Chengdu to Wuhan to about three hours and from Chengdu to Shanghai to about seven hours.