State Railway Group: Sichuan-Tibet Railway is the "number one project" of railway construction in the "14th Five-Year Plan"

Source: China News Network

Beijing, 19 Jan (China News Service) -- Zhao Changjiang, deputy director of the Development and Reform Department of China National Railway Group Co., Ltd., said on the 19th that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the State Railway Group will adhere to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway as the "number one project" of railway construction, and gather the strength of the whole industry to promote the construction of the project.

Zhao Changjiang said this at a news conference held by China's National Development and Reform Commission on the same day.

He said that by the end of 2021, the operating mileage of China's national railways has exceeded 150,000 kilometers, of which more than 40,000 kilometers are high-speed railways. Combined with the arrangement of projects under construction and proposed construction, it is estimated that the total scale of fixed asset investment in the national railway in the "14th Five-Year Plan" is equivalent to that of the "13th Five-Year Plan", and the planning and construction priorities are mainly in the following five aspects:

The first is to promote the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway with high quality. The State Railway Group will adhere to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway as the "number one project" of railway construction, focus on creating high-quality projects, safety projects, green projects, innovative projects, and clean projects, adhere to scientific construction, safe construction, and green construction, give full play to the key role of scientific and technological innovation, and insist on doing its best to fight and gather the strength of the whole industry to promote the construction of the project.

The second is to focus on filling the "blank space" of the western railway. In order to solve the problem of "leaving blank space" too much for the western railway, China will focus on building a multi-directional passage into Tibet, improving the external passage out of Xinjiang, accelerating the preliminary work of the new Tibet railway, and creating conditions to start the construction of key road sections. Promote the upgrading and transformation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, and carry out preliminary research on key sections of the Yunnan-Tibet Railway.

The third is to speed up the improvement of the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network. Strive to basically complete the main channel of the "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and effectively improve the capacity and quality of the main channels along the river, coast, Beijing and Shanghai.

The fourth is to expand the coverage of the general speed railway network in an orderly manner. Comprehensively promote the construction of railway networks in the central and western regions, strengthen the railway network in border areas, increase the density of railway networks in old revolutionary areas, ethnic minority areas and underdeveloped areas, enhance railway freight capacity in key areas such as the yangtze river, support the construction of local development railways in resource-rich and densely populated areas, and improve the depth of access to the general speed railway network.

The fifth is to actively promote the development of intercity railways and urban railways in urban agglomerations. Support the use of existing railway surplus capacity in a market-oriented manner, and the opening of intercity and urban trains through appropriate transformation.

Zhao Changjiang said that according to the planning plan, it is expected that by the end of 2025, the operating mileage of China's national railways will reach about 165,000 kilometers, of which high-speed railways (including some intercity railways) will be about 50,000 kilometers, covering more than 95% of cities with a population of more than 500,000, basically forming a "national 123 high-speed rail travel circle" to better meet people's beautiful travel needs. (End)