The country’s railway operator — China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) — has started building another high-speed railway in Central China’s Hunan Province, as part of a major HSR artery to boost north-south traffic.
The 96-kilometer-long Shaoyang-Yongzhou HSR, with a designed speed of 350 km per hour for the trains, started its construction on December 26, 2023, to link two prefecture-level cities in southwestern Hunan. It is also part of the Hohhot-Nanning HSR, which links the regional capitals of North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
With a construction period of four years, the HSR starts from Shaoyang Railway Station in Shaoyang City, and after passing southward through Daxiang District and Shaoyang County in Shaoyang, Dong’an County and Lengshuitan District in Yongzhou City, ends at Yongzhou Railway Station. Two of the three stations on the HSR — Shaoyang Railway Station and Yongzhou Railway Station — are existing stations, while Shaoyang County Station will be a new station.
Speaking at a launching ceremony in Shaoyang on December 26, 2023, Hunan Governor Mao Weiming said as a major project in Hunan, the Shaoyang-Yongzhou HSR will be an industrial achievement in building a modern new Hunan.
Guo Zhuxue, general manager of China Railway which is a solely State-owned enterprise under the management of the central government, said while the construction of railways in Hunan has been advancing fast in recent years, the province’s operating mileage of railways has reached 60,79 kilometers, including 2,501 kilometers of HSR, ranking among the top five in the country.
The construction of Shaoyang-Yongzhou HSR, as a key component of the national “eight vertical and eight horizontal” HSR network, will be vital for Hunan to fully integrate into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and link with the Beibu Gulf city agglomeration, Guo said. And by promoting the high-standard opening-up of Hunan to the outside world, it is also conducive to opening up new channels for industrial transfer in southern and western Hunan, he said.
Liu Bo, Party secretary and chairman of China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CREC4), also attended the launching ceremony.
CREC4 is undertaking the No 1 Exterior Bid of the Shaoyang-Yongzhou HSR, which is located in Shaoyang City with a length of 34.233 kilometers. Its main construction includes roadbed, railway bridges, single-hole double-track tunnels, in addition to setting up a prefabrication yard and a double-block rail sleeper prefabrication yard.