Nanjing–Xi'an Railway

The Nanjing–Xi'an Railway over the You River near Weinan in Shaanxi Province.

The Nanjing–Xian Railway or Ningxi Railway (simplified Chinese: 宁西铁路; traditional Chinese: 寧西鐵路; pinyin: níngxī tiělù), is a major trunkline railroad in China between Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province and Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. The Chinese name for the line, Ningxi, is named after the two terminal cities, Ning, the Chinese character shorthand for the city of Nanjing, and Xi for Xian. The line is 1,196 km (743 mi) in length and comprises the Xi’an-Hefei section in the west, 1,196 km (743 mi) in length, that opened on January 7, 2004 and the high-speed Hefei-Nanjing section in the east, better known as the Hefei–Nanjing Passenger Railway, 166 km (103 mi) in length, that opened on April 18, 2008.^[1]^[2] In addition, a connection line 72 km (45 mi) in length was built in 2004 between the main line in Sui County and the Hankou–Danjiangkou Railway in northern Hubei.^[3] The Ningxi Railway passes through five provinces in central and eastern China.^[3] Major cities along route include Nanjing and Pukou in Jiangsu Province; Feidong, Hefei and Lu'an in Anhui Province; Huangchuan, Xinyang, Nanyang and Xixia County in Henan Province and Shangluo, Weinan and Xian in Shaanxi Province. The main line skirts Hubei Province near Sui County.

History

Planning of the Nanjing-Xian Railway began in early 1990s to bring railway service to a 400–500 km void in China's railway network between the Longhai Railway to the north and Xiangyu and Handan Railways to the south.^[3] Construction began in 2000 and the Xi’an-Hefei section of the line entered into operation on January 7, 2004. The high-speed, double-track Hefei-Nanjing section, also known as the Hefei–Nanjing Passenger Railway, which was built from 2005 to 2008, opened on April 18, 2008 and forms part of the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu Passenger Dedicated Line. As of July 2011, construction of a second track for the Xi'an-Hefei section is set to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011 and is planned to be completed in 2014.^[4]