High-speed rail to open this year, cut travel time by about 12 hours

The first high-speed railway in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region will begin operating this year, according to railway officials.

The Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railway conducted its first test run on the line's Xinjiang section on Tuesday, traveling from a bullet train maintenance facility in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, to Shanshan county's railway station.

Tests on about 90 percent of the line's infrastructure have finished, and the rest will be done in July, said Liu Xinle, director of construction management with the Urumqi Railway Bureau.

He added that the test run will last several months to examine control systems, bullet trains and infrastructure.

"We plan to put the line in full operation before the end of this year, but how many services will run on the line each day after its opening and the line's daily transport capacity have yet to be decided," he said aboard the test train.

The line stretches 1,776 kilometers from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, to Urumqi and has a maximum speed of 250 km per hour. It will run parallel to the existing Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway, which was opened in the early 1960s and runs trains at lower speeds.

Once the high-speed line opens, it will cut travel time between Lanzhou and Urumqi to eight hours from about 20 hours, making visits to Xinjiang much more convenient.

The Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway is the only rail line currently connecting Xinjiang with other provincial regions.

Lai Xin, an official with the Xinjiang Development and Reform Commission, said, "The high-speed line will serve to transport passengers so it can relieve the heavy burden of the old Lanzhou-Xinjiang line, enabling the latter to focus on freight transport."

He said most of the cargo now transported to or from Xinjiang by truck is done so at higher cost.

Construction of the high-speed line presented a host of technical obstacles for Chinese engineers, said La Youyu, who directed construction of the railway's Xinjiang section.

He said there are five major wind-ravaged sections along the line, totaling 580 km, adding that winds in the Baili Windy Area can reach 60 meters per second.

Engineers devised three methods to handle the wind's impact, such as building wind-proof and dust-suppression walls along the line. They also constructed a 1,200-meter-long arched structure above the ground in the middle of the Baili Windy Area.

Big temperature differences also test the infrastructure's reliability, he said.

"The highest temperature in Turpan is nearly 50 C, while the lowest in Urumqi can be minus 41 C, so the extreme changes could affect the condition of roadbeds and tracks, forcing us to use special techniques to treat the concrete."

Adi Turdi, the first bullet train driver in China from the Uygur ethnic group, said he is looking forward to receiving passengers and transporting them to Xinjiang.

"I will bring my 4-year-old daughter to take the train once it opens. As far as I know, people from every ethnic group in Xinjiang are excitedly waiting for the high-speed line's operation."

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/05/2014 page4)