Boon for Chongming residents as new high-speed rail plan on track
Residents of Chongming District can now imagine travelling far by train from the island in the near future as a new high-speed railway will pass through the district, China Railway Shanghai Group said on Tuesday.
Running along the Yangtze River and connecting 16 stations in Shanghai and Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Sichuan high-speed railway has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
The railway, a double-way and high-speed one, will start from the newly-built Baoshan Station in Shanghai's suburban Baoshan District, then pass through the Chongming Station on Chongming Island, and end at the Hefei South Station in Anhui.
It will run through eight cities and 26 counties (districts), with a total length of 554.6 kilometers (including 519.9km of newly-built railways) and a designated speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
The construction period for the project is seven years from Baoshan Station (inclusive) to Qidong West Station (exclusive), and five years from Qidong Station (inclusive) to Hefei South Station. The planned annual one-way transportation capacity is 50 million people each year, the group revealed.
Many netizens seemed enthused by the new railway construction.
"We look forward to the completion of Chongming Station," a resident said in an online message. "It is an opportunity for the development of this ecological island."
"It is a sign that Baoshan and Chongming districts in Shanghai and Taicang in neighboring Jiangsu Province will be on a fast track to development in the near future," another netizen mused.
Railway stations in Shanghai
There are a total of seven railway stations in Shanghai – three large stations (Shanghai Station, Shanghai Hongqiao Station and Shanghai South Station) and four smaller ones (Shanghai West Station, Nanxiang North Station, Anting West Station and Anting North Station).
Only high-speed trains can pass through, depart and arrive at Hongqiao Station, while all kinds of trains can leave, arrive and pass through the other two large stations with most trains heading north from Shanghai Station, and heading south from Shanghai South Station, according to railway officials.
The four small stations only operate for pick-up function on some intercity lines.
