New Yiwan railway opens in November linking Wuhan to Chongqing

YIWAN Railway, considered the most expensive build as crosses the most difficult mountainous terrain, was completed on August 18 and will start operation in November.

The CNY22.5 billion (US$3.31 billion) project took seven years to build and cost CNY60 million per kilometre over its 377 kilometre length from Wuhan on the Yangtze upstream to Chongqing. This exceeds the record breaking CNY29 million per kilometre cost of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.


Featuring 34 major tunnels, the trip will take eight hours from Wuhan to Chongqing, saving 10 hours from the present journey. The train is designed to cruise at 160 kph, but can reach a top speed of 200 kph.


The line is part of China`s major railway network, designed to be part of the future Huhanrong Passenger Dedicated Line from Shanghai to Wuhan and Chengdu, connecting with the Hanyi Railway (Hankou-Yichang) at Yichang East Railway Station and with another line to the west at Wanzhou.