The "sub-center" in the middle of the country that has fallen behind has finally waited for the opportunity to make up for its shortcomings.
Recently, the website of the Luoyang Municipal Development and Reform Commission announced that the feasibility study report of the Jiaozuo to Pingdingshan high-speed railway via Luoyang was jointly approved by the China Railway Group and the Henan Provincial Government, which is a key step towards the full start of construction.
The Jiaoluoping high-speed railway is an integral part of the Hunan high-speed railway, the main channel of the mainland's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railways. According to public information, as early as 2009, the Jiaojiluo and Luoyang-Pingdingshan intercity railways were included in the "Central Plains Urban Agglomeration Intercity Rail Transit Network Planning (2009~2020)" approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
Over the years, the relevant line planning has been full of twists and turns, affecting the "nerves" of the areas along the line.
How important is this high-speed rail? A realistic background is that after Henan took the lead in building a "m" shaped high-speed rail network centered on Zhengzhou in the country, it is facing fierce competition for high-speed rail tracks between provinces, and the outside world is worried about it: how can Henan continue its advantages in the post-"m" shaped era?
In the next "chess game" of this high-speed rail province, Luoyang, which is positioned as the "sub-central city of the Central Plains urban agglomeration", is obviously pinned on high hopes.
With the acceleration of the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway, Luoyang is finally expected to break the embarrassing situation of only one east-west high-speed rail channel and complete another stroke of the "ten" structure in history. In the longer term, Luoyang seems to have the possibility of creating another "rice" hub? To make up for the shortcomings of transportation, can we regain some confidence for Luoyang?
Hold on to the advantage
Henan is the country's first province with a high-speed rail network in the shape of a "meter".
At the end of last year, the Zhengji high-speed railway was opened. After 18 years and an investment of 300 billion yuan, Henan took the lead in building a 2,200-kilometer meter-shaped high-speed rail network in the country, forming a "12345" high-speed rail traffic circle with Zhengzhou as the center and reaching the main economic zones of the country, jumping from the "heart of China's railway" to the "heart of China's high-speed rail".
However, the era of high-speed rail is changing with each passing day, and the settlement of this super project does not mean that Henan can "lie flat".
Before Henan, six provinces, including Fujian, Anhui and Jiangsu, have taken the lead in realizing the "city-to-city high-speed railway". As of the end of last year, the mileage of high-speed railways in Anhui was 2,537 kilometers, the mileage of high-speed railways in Hunan was 2,501 kilometers, and the mileage of high-speed railways in Jiangxi was also close to 2,300 kilometers.
From the perspective of hub status, Hubei next door is also speeding up the promotion of a super "m" shaped hub network with Wuhan as the core, a "multi-directional radial" high-speed rail hub with Xiangyang and Yichang as sub-centers, and a "cross-shaped" high-speed rail hub with other cities and prefectures as nodes...... Henan's first-mover advantage will gradually weaken.
In fact, as early as the eve of the completion of Henan's "m" high-speed railway network, there was a concern spread in the local area - what other important railway projects can be expected in Henan in the post-"m" era?
At that time, Geng Mingzhai, dean of the Central Plains Economic Development Research Institute and senior professor of Henan University, pointed out in an interview that "from 2021, we (Henan) have quickly woken up" and have begun to plan the second round of high-speed rail construction in full swing.
Also around 2022, the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway has been included in the national "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of a modern comprehensive transportation system and the "14th Five-Year Plan for the development of a modern comprehensive transportation system and hub economy in Henan Province".
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, in response to the question of "how should Henan do in the face of the rapid catch-up of brother provinces and cities", Yue Guoyong, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Henan Railway Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd., further revealed that he will make every effort to implement the high-speed rail expansion network project and accelerate the construction of seven key projects such as Nanxinhe high-speed railway and Jiaoluoping high-speed railway in the "14th Five-Year Plan".
It is not difficult to see that the great attention paid to it at the national and provincial levels is also an important reason why the long-brewing Jiaoluoping high-speed railway has been able to advance rapidly in the past two years.
According to public reports, since January 2022, the special classes of (Henan) Province and (Luoyang) City have organized 4 promotion meetings and 51 special class meetings to promote the efficient completion of the pre-feasibility study approval procedures such as project planning and site selection, social stability, energy-saving assessment, and land use pre-examination of the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway, as well as important node work such as pre-feasibility study review, feasibility study review, and feasibility study evaluation, until the feasibility study report was jointly approved by China Railway Group and the provincial government.
Rice word concept
According to the plan, the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway passes through Jiaozuo City, Jiyuan City, Luoyang City and Pingdingshan City in the west of Henan, with a new line length of 229.2 kilometers and a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
Image source: Railway construction plan, for reference only
In the view of Liang Liuke, chairman of the Henan Provincial Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, "after the approval of the Jiaoluoping high-speed rail project, the Henan's 'm' shaped high-speed rail network centered on Zhengzhou, coupled with the two high-speed rail 'ten' structures of Luoyang in western Henan and Shangqiu in eastern Henan, Henan began to form a new pattern of high-speed rail led by rice characters and driven by two wings." ”
In other words, this north-south high-speed rail line is not only conducive to strengthening the interconnection of cities in western Henan, but also will solve Luoyang's previous embarrassing situation - as the sub-central city of the Central Plains urban agglomeration, there is only one high-speed rail transit, that is, the east-west Zhengxi high-speed railway, which seriously restricts the local economic and social development and radiation driving role.
In Henan Province, Shangqiu, which ushered in the first high-speed railway in 2016, has formed the second high-speed rail and ordinary railway "double cross" hub after Zhengzhou after the opening of the Shanghe-Hangzhou high-speed railway in 2020, becoming the second largest railway hub city in Henan. Compared with Xiangyang, Wuhu and other places that are also sub-central cities in central China, Luoyang's existing high-speed rail pattern is even more obvious.
Faced with this situation, the local people are not in a hurry.
The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Modern Comprehensive Transportation System and Hub Economy of Henan Province" released in 2022 has proposed to "realize the reconstruction of transportation location advantages". Among them, Luoyang is mentioned in many places, and it is clear that the construction of the sub-central city of Luoyang Central Plains Urban Agglomeration will be accelerated, and the construction of Luoyang's "ten" high-speed railway skeleton will be addressed.
At present, the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway, which is expected to start construction as soon as possible, makes Luoyang add the second stroke of the word "ten" just around the corner, and it has also become an important opportunity for it to reverse the situation. And after the word "ten", this sub-central city has a bigger idea.
With the acceleration of planning and construction in various places, the "m" shaped high-speed rail has long been not limited to the competition between provincial capitals. Seeing that the surrounding cities are aiming at the "m" word hub and competing for layout, with the "big brother" Zhengzhou in the province in front of the demonstration, Luoyang is naturally not far behind.
Image source: "Henan Province's "14th Five-Year Plan" for Modern Comprehensive Transportation System and Hub Economic Development
Although the existing line map is temporarily "left behind", Luoyang's "m" shaped high-speed rail dream may not be far away. In recent years, among the many expressions of Henan's provincial transportation plan, Luoyang, which has the positioning of both a "national comprehensive transportation hub" and a "sub-central city", is almost second only to the provincial capital Zhengzhou.
Based on the relevant planning and people's voices, in addition to the Zhengxi high-speed railway and the Jiaoluoping high-speed railway, the lines that are expected to improve Luoyang's "m" high-speed rail network in the future include the Ningluo high-speed railway in the southeast direction (part of the Shanghai-Yinchuan high-speed railway, which reaches Nanjing and Shanghai from Yinchuan in Ningxia to Nanjing and Shanghai, and has been included in the national long-term planning), and the Luoshi (Luoyang-Shiyan) railway in the southwest.
The puzzle is to be solved
As the main artery of the national economy, the railway has brought more than just the status of the transportation hub to the city. At present, all parts of the country are accelerating efforts to supplement the regional rail network, and its essence is to realize the organic interaction between rail transit and local development by strengthening intra-regional connectivity.
This is also considered to be one of the shortcomings of Henan, a major high-speed rail province.
Specifically, in addition to Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, as the core of the province's hub economic development, and being given the mission of linking the Zhengzhou metropolitan area, Luoyang and Nanyang, as the two officially determined sub-central cities, also shoulder the important task of radiating and driving the development of cities in western and southern Henan.
Image source: Luoyang Municipal Government official website
However, the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Modern Comprehensive Transportation System and Hub Economy in Henan Province" has directly pointed out the local problems: "The system and mechanism for transforming transportation location advantages into hub economic advantages are not perfect, the initiative awareness and operation ability of integrated development are not strong, and there is a dependence on traditional development paths." ”
Facing the "14th Five-Year Plan", Henan will clearly take the hub city as the core, strengthen transportation docking, functional convergence and industrial linkage, and build a hub economic growth pole of "one core and four districts". It mentions that "strengthen the West Henan Hub Economic Coordinated Development Zone." Promote the integrated development of modern commerce, production services and supply chains between Luoyang and Sanmenxia, Jiyuan and other hub cities, and jointly build a demonstration zone for transformation, innovation and development in western Henan. ”
At the 2024 Global Henan Business Conference Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area Industry Matchmaking Conference held not long ago, the "Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area Urban Industry Investment Cooperation Declaration" was officially released to the society after consensus in 8 cities, including Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Xuchang, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Pingdingshan, and Luohe. Among the 8 key industrial belts (chains) announced at the same time, many of them involve the collaborative integration of Luoyang and sister cities in western Henan. For example:
Luojijiao High-end Petrochemical Industrial Belt: Relying on regional transportation corridors such as Hunan High-speed Railway, Luojijiao Intercity, Jiaoliu Railway, Erguang Expressway, etc., it connects Mengjin Advanced Manufacturing Development Zone, Jiyuan High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Mengzhou High-tech Industrial Development Zone and other industrial functional zones to jointly build a 100-billion-level high-end petrochemical industrial base.
Luoping High-end Equipment Industrial Belt: Guided by the construction of the National Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Demonstration Zone in the western part of Henan (Luoyang-Pingdingshan), we will build a high-end equipment industrial base with strong influence.
This undoubtedly puts forward higher requirements for Luoyang. In this context, Luoyang's economic performance is slightly struggling.
In the annual statistical bulletin, Luoyang has reduced the final verified GDP data for two consecutive years - from the preliminary accounting of 544.71 billion yuan to 538.41 billion yuan in 2021, and from 567.52 billion yuan to 538.62 billion yuan in 2022.
In 2023, Luoyang will GDP5481 600 million yuan, which is lower than Xiangyang and Yichang in the central non-provincial capital cities alone. According to the latest data in the first quarter of this year, Luoyang GDP1374 15 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%, and the growth rate was not only 3.8 percentage points lower than the national level, but also 3.2 percentage points lower than that of the province.
With opportunities and challenges just around the corner, how will this sub-center, which carries many expectations, lead the surrounding sister cities to "develop together"?