China builds first high-speed railway through karst region

Construction of China's first high-speed railway running through the country's southwest karst regions was completed on Sunday.

The 857-km railway linking Guiyang, capital of landlocked mountainous province of Guizhou, with south China's economic powerhouse Guangzhou, is expected to become operational on Friday.

Guizhou has the world's most typical karst plateau landscape, which was inducted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone.

Stretching through the complicated karst clusters, the railway had half of its length run through 238 tunnels, two of which are more than 14 km long, said Zhang Jianbo, general manager of the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway Co.

It took builders four years to drill through the two longest tunnels. Construction was often disrupted by breaking rocks, rupture of strata and water infiltration, Zhang said.

The construction company applied for six national patents covering their shockproof technology which was adopted to reduce the vibration that occurs when a train travelling at 250 km/hour runs through mountain tunnels.

Wang Mengshu, a tunnel expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the technology and machinery engineering developed for building the Guiyang-Guangzhou high-speed railway represents the country's new-generation innovation in tunnel engineering.
 Source: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
21/12/14
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Related:

• China launches longest high-speed train line (VIDEO CCTV)

China launches longest high-speed train line (VIDEO CCTV)

Trains travelling at 300kph on world's fastest rail line run 2,298km between the capital and Guangzhou.
China has opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs almost 2,300km from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in southern China.
The line officially started service on Wednesday when a train departed from Beijing at 9am for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later. 
Trains on this high-speed line will initially run at 300kph with a total travel time of about eight hours between the two cities, compared with the previous time length of 20 hours.
The rail line includes 35 stops in major cities such as Zhenghzhou, Wuhan on the Yangze River and Gangsha. 

State media have reported that December 26 was chosen as the date to open the Beijing-Guangzhou line to commemorate the birth of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1893. 
Railway is an essential part in China's transportation system, and its government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.
China's high-speed rail network was established in 2007, but has fast become the world's largest with 8,358 kilometres of track at the end of 2010. That is expected to almost double to 16,000km by 2020. 
The railway network, however, has been plagued by graft and safety scandals, most notably a deadly bullet train collision in July 2011 that killed 40 people and led to public outrage.
The accident was China's worst rail disaster since 2008 and caused a torrent of criticism aimed at the government amid accusations that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.
Authorities said they had taken steps ahead of the new line's opening to improve maintenance and inspection of infrastructure and emergency response measures.
"The emergency rescue system and all kinds of emergency pre-plans are established to improve emergency response ability," according to a ministry booklet.
.aljazeera.com
26/12/12 
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• Studio interview: Significance of world´s longest rail line

Linking the capital, five provinces and twenty-eight cities, China has opened the longest high-speed rail network in the world. December 26th marks the third anniversary of China’s successful Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed rail link, and on the same day the new Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed rail link goes into operation. Full story >>

For more on the economic aspects, we're joined in the studio by Professor Liu Baocheng from the University of International Business and Economics.
Q1, The high-speed line from Beijing to South China’s Guangzhou is the world’s longest, nearly 23-hundred kilometers long. How important is it to the expansion of the country’s high speed railway network?
Q2, The new line is going into operation before the Spring Festival holiday. How is it going to make things easier for travelers?
Q3, The high-speed railway connects Beijing with five provincial capitals -- Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou. Explain to our audience how it will help boost the national economy.
Q4, How will the new line boost tourism at the stops along the route?
Q5, What other sectors will benefit from the new service?