List of China High Speed Train Lines
List of High-Speed Railway Lines in ChinaChina's high-speed railway network is by far the longest in the world. As of December 2022, it extends to 31 of the country's 33 provincial-level administrative divisions and exceeds 40,000 km (25,000 mi) in total length, accounting for about two-thirds of the world's high-speed rail tracks in commercial service.
Over the past decade, China’s high-speed rail network grew rapidly according to ambitious railway plans issued by the State. The "Mid- to Long-Term Railway Network Plan" ("Railway Network Plan") approved by the State Council in 2004 called for 12,000 km (7,456 mi) of passenger-dedicated HSR lines running train at speeds of at least 200 km/h (124 mph) by 2020.
The 2008 Revisions to the Railway Network Plan increased the year 2020 passenger-dedicated HSR network target length to 16,000 km (9,942 mi) and removed the 200 km/h speed standard to allow new lines to be built to standards that can accommodate faster trains.
China's High Speed Railway Network OverviewIn 2008, the Ministry of Railways announced plans to build 25,000 km (16,000 mi) of high-speed railways with trains reaching normal speeds of 350 km/h. China invested $50 billion on its high-speed rail system in 2009 and the total construction cost of the high-speed rail system is $300 billion. The main operator of regular high-speed train services is China Railway High-Speed (CRH).
China's conventional high-speed railway network is made up of four components: - A national grid of mostly passenger dedicated HSR lines (PDLs).
- Other regional HSRs connecting major cities.
- Certain regional "intercity" HSR lines, and.
- Other newly built or upgraded conventional rail lines, mostly in western China, that can carry high-speed passenger and freight trains.
National High Speed Rail Grid"Four Vertical and Four Horizontal" networkThe centerpiece of the MOR's expansion into high-speed rail is a national high-speed rail grid that is overlaid onto the existing railway network. The 2004 Railway Network Plan called for four lines running north-south (verticals) and four lines running east-west (horizontals) by the year 2020 that would connect population centers in economically developed regions of the country.
The 2008 Revisions to the Railway Network Plan extended the length of the Beijing-Shenzhen HSR to Hong Kong and the Shanghai-Changsha HSR to Kunming. Each line in the 4+4 national HSR grid is over 1,400 km in length, except the
Qingdao-Taiyuan Line which is 873 km in length. Apart from the
Hangzhou–Shenzhen HSR (Ningbo-Shenzhen section) and
Shanghai–Chengdu HSR (Nanjing-Chengdu section), which were the first railways to connect those cities and carry both passenger and freight, the other six lines are all passenger-dedicated lines.
With the exception of the Yichang-Chengdu section of the
Shanghai-Chengdu HSR with speed limits of 200 km/h (120 mph), all other lines in the 4+4 national grid were built to accommodate trains at speeds of 250–350 km/h (160–220 mph).
With the completion of the
Beijing–Shenyang high-speed railway, this backbone network was fully completed in January 2021.
Four North-South HSR Corridors And Constituent LinesVertical HSR CorridorsBeijing-Harbin High-Speed Railway 1700 km - Vertical HSR CorridorBeijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway 1433 km - Vertical HSR CorridorBeijing-Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Railway 2229 km - Vertical HSR Corridor
Hangzhou-Fuzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway 1495 km - Vertical HSR Corridor
Four East-West HSR Corridors and Constituent Lines
Horizontal HSR Corridors
Qingdao-Taiyuan High-Speed Railway 873 km - Horizontal HSR Corridors
Xuzhou-Lanzhou High-Speed Railway 1363 km - Horizontal HSR Corridors
Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu High-Speed Railway 2078 km - Horizontal HSR Corridors
Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Railway 2066 km - Horizontal HSR Corridors
