When the Hefei-Anqing railway, a section of the Beijing-Hong Kong
high-speed railway, was put into operation on Tuesday, it is believed to
address inadequacies in the railway network in the Yangtze River Delta,
and it will promote regional economic development, an expert noted. With
trains running at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour on the
railway linking the provincial capital Hefei and Anqing, with seven
stations in between, the time needed to travel between Hefei and Anqing
has now been shortened to one hour and 13 minutes, Xinhua News Agency
reported Monday. The 176-kilometer Hefei-Anqing railway, lying in
East China's Anhui Province, serves as an essential part of China's
national medium- and long-term railway construction plan, also known as
the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network. The
northern end of the rail line in Hefei will connect with
Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou railway, Hefei-Nanjing railway, Hefei-Fuzhou
railway, Hefei-Bengbu railway and Hefei-Wuhan railway. The southern end
in Anqing will connect with Nanjing-Anqing railway and Anqing-Jiujiang
section of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway, The Paper
reported. With the Yancheng-Nantong high-speed railway in East
China's Jiangsu Province scheduled to be put into operation at the end
of this year, as well as several other railways in the Yangtze River
Delta being put into operation recently, the "blanks" in the region's
railway network have been filled where there previously was no railway
line. These new railways help meet the increasing demand for
passenger transportation between cities within the Yangtze River Delta
region, especially the major cities and provincial capital cities. They
also serve the nationwide "eight vertical and eight horizontal"
high-speed railway network, making it easier for cities and major
economic zones across the country to connect with each other, Xu Ruihua,
professor with the College of Transportation Engineering of Tongji
University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. With the new
Hefei-Anqing and Yancheng-Nantong railways put into operation, the
mileage of new railways put into operation in the Yangtze River Delta
this year will exceed 1,180 kilometers, one-fourth of the total mileage
of new railways scheduled to be put into operation across the country
this year, the Shanghai Observer reported on Tuesday. Statistics
show that investment in railway infrastructure construction in the
Yangtze River Delta has been exceeding 80 billion yuan ($12.21 billion)
every year during the past five years. The total investment this year
has exceeded 90 billion yuan, Modern Express reported in June.
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