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According to the Planning of Sichuan Province on the Construction of Comprehensive Transport for the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period, during this period, Sichuan will invest 845.3 billion yuan to build 11 railway lines and 18 highways into and out of Sichuan. This will basically transform the province into a comprehensive traffic hub in western China. Tianfu New Area will become a rail transit network hub consisting of national, intercity, regional and urban railway lines. In addition, the special railway line from Chengdu to Chongqing will be completed. The Chengdu-Kunming railway line will be extended to included Emei and Ya'an station. There are also plans to build a special Chengdu-Xi'an and Chengdu-Guiyang railway passenger lines. The construction of the Ya'an to Kangding (Xinduqiao), the Changdu section of Sichuan-Tibet railway line and the Emei-Guangtong section of Chengdu-Kunming railway line will begin soon.
90 kilometers new subway line to be added to urban rail transit system
The plan requires the speeding up of the research on the railway line connecting Tianfu New Area to southern Sichuan region. It also requires more effort to be done on the preliminary work of site selection for the Tianfu's railway terminal station. In order to build a railway network in Tianfu New Area, it must also quicken the construction of the high-grade highways within the region.
It is worth mentioning that, for the first time, the construction of the subway was brought forward in the Plan - a 90 kilometer new subway line will be built in Chengdu, completing the city's metro network framework. It will start the planning and integration of the subway networks of downtown Chengdu and Tianfu New Area, constructing and operating the following projects: the first-phase project of subway line 1, the first-phase project of the south extension of subway line 1, all of subway line 2, the first-phase project of subway lines 3 and 4. It will also begin the construction of the following projects: the second-phase project of the south extension of subway line 1, the south and north extension of subway line 3, the east and west extension of subway line 4, the first-phase project of subway lines 5 and 7 and the airport express line. It will launch the construction of the following projects: the section between the extension of subway line 1 to Jiancha, the southern section of subway line 6, the east extended section of subway line 10 (Shuangliu Airport to Wan'an and to Jiancha East).
Intercity railway adds convenience
Chengdu-Mianyang-Leshan railway passenger line is a modern main artery that connects cities in the Western Sichuan. It is also the first intercity passenger line constructed in Sichuan province. After completion, it will only take over half an hour from Chengdu to Jiangyou and Leshan cities at the ends of the railway. The Chengdu-Emei section along the Chengdu-Kunming railway will be extended. It will pass through Xinjin, Pengshan, Meishan, Simeng, Jianjiang Qingyi River and finally arrive at Emei station. After this railway line is complete, a trip from Chengdu to Emei by train will only take 40 minutes.
An officer from the Municipal Traffic Commission said that "Once the construction of those railways are complete, more than ten large and medium-sized areas will be linked together making their journey into Chengdu much shorter. This will play a positive role in integrating and developing the tourism resources. It will also encourage the urbanization of towns. For example, after the Chengdu-Mianyang-Leshan passenger line is finished, it will only take two hours from cities in the north to those in the south". He also said that trains along these lines will leave every few minutes, which will completely change the way people live and work. People living in Mianyang and Leshan could even take the intercity train to Chengdu and transfer to other subways to do shopping in Chunxi Road, and then go back home.
In addition, after the Chengdu-Pujiang railway line and the Pengzhou section of the Chengdu-Dujiangyan railway line is finished and put into use, it will shorten the time to less than half an hour from Pujiang and Pengzhou to downtown Chengdu.
National railway arteries forms 8hr round-trip
During the "Twelfth Five-year Plan" period, a special passenger line from Chengdu to Chongqing will make life more convenient for people living in both cities. Chengdu-Xi'an and Chengdu-Guiyang railway lines are also expected to be completed soon.
With a total length of 308.206 kilometers, the Chengdu-Chongqing passenger line starts from Chengdu East Train Station in the west and goes eastward through Jianyang, Ziyang, Zizhong, Neijiang, Longchang and finally reaches Chongqing Station. Once in operation, the journey is an eight-hour round-trip between Chongqing and Chengdu. It will also lay framework for the comprehensive transport system in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic region, boosting the development of the western regions and integrating urban-rural areas.
Together with the Chongqing-Wuhan and Wuhan-Shanghai railway lines, passengers can go straight from Chengdu to Shanghai in eight hours.
The Chengdu-Xi'an special passenger railway line will enable people to travel between the two cities within only two hours. An official from the Municipal Traffic Commission also said, "By then, the high-speed railways of Xi'an-Zhengzhou and Zhengzhou-Beijing will be finished as well", which will shape into the fastest railway from Chengdu to the North China Plain. It will take only six hours to Beijing from Chengdu by this high-speed railway, realizing a journey that "starts at daybreak and arrives at sunset".
The Chengdu-Guiyang passenger line connects with the Chengdu-Mianyang-Leshan intercity railway at Leshan west station in the west and ends at Guiyang city in the east, while Guiyang is linked to the Guiyang-Guangzhou special passenger railway line. An official from the Municipal Traffic Commission said, "It will only take two hours from Chengdu to Guiyang after the Chengdu-Guiyang railway line is finished and put into use". The time it takes from Chengdu to Guangzhou city in Guangdong province will be shortened to six hours.