Lines connecting Shanghai, neighbor provinces to make travel easier in area The Yangtze River Delta region, one of China's most economically
active, open and innovative areas, is gaining momentum in regional
integration with two newly opened railway lines to enhance its
transportation interconnection, according to the country's railway
operator. One of the two new lines-Shanghai-Suzhou-Nantong Railway, connecting
Shanghai with Nantong in neighboring Jiangsu province-is scheduled to
start operating on Wednesday, according to China State Railway Group. With a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour, the 143-kilometer
rail line will cut travel time between Shanghai and Nantong to about one
hour from the current 3.5 hours, according to the company. The railway, an important part of a planned coastal passage, will
connect the northern part of Jiangsu with neighboring Shandong and
Zhejiang provinces via existing railways and a new line under
construction. The company also noted that the opening of the line is of great
significance in efforts to enhance the role of Shanghai in driving the
regional economy and promoting the regional integration of the Yangtze
River Delta, which consists of Shanghai municipality and the provinces
of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. Another new railway-the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou High-speed Railway,
which threads the provinces of Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang-opened on
Sunday, as did its last section linking Anhui's Hefei and Zhejiang's
Huzhou. The 794.5-kilometer route, with a maximum designed speed of 350
kilometers per hour, is expected to further boost the coordinated
development of the Yangtze River Delta region, the company said. Wang Anli, deputy general manager of an industrial robot arm company
in Xuancheng, in Anhui, is now able to travel to meet her clients 210
kilometers away in less than an hour thanks to the opening of the
railway. Wang said that before the new line opened, the journey from Xuancheng
to Hangzhou in Zhejiang took her about two hours to complete as she
needed to take a one-hour bus to the nearest high-speed railway station
before heading to Hangzhou. As China highlights the importance of new infrastructure, the region
is expected to be injected with more incentives to further facilitate
its integrated development. Last year, China unveiled an outline for the regional integrated
development of the Yangtze River Delta, which contributes about
one-fourth of the country's GDP and about one-third of foreign trade and
investment.
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