New regional high-speed railway approved

The design of a new high-speed railway stretching 163.8 kilometers and connecting seven stations has been approved, China Railway Shanghai Group announced on Wednesday.

The Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou Railway is designed to carry trains traveling at 350 kilometers per hour. The seven stations on the line are Shanghai Hongqiao, Songjiang South, Fenhu, Shengze, Nanxun, Huzhou East and Huzhou.

The railway will run through western Shanghai, southern Jiangsu Province and northern Zhejiang Province.

It will connect with the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway, the Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway and the Huzhou-Hangzhou high-speed railway in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and link with the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo railway in Wujiang District of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, the group said.

It will be a trunk route for the inter-city rail network in the Yangtze River Delta region, an important part of the Taihu Lake rail transportation circle and a tourist inter-city route centered on the region's watertowns, the group said.

Construction of the project is estimated to take four years, according to the group.