Recently, the feasibility study report of Tongren-Jishou Railway (hereinafter referred to as "Tongji-Jishou Railway") was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
Tongji Railway is located in Tongren City, Guizhou Province, Hunan Province Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, the line starts from Tongren Station of Tongyu Railway, passes through Tongren Phoenix Airport to the east, and introduces Phoenix Ancient City Station of Zhangjihuai Railway, with a total length of 52.1 kilometers, including 19.1 kilometers in Guizhou and 33 kilometers in Hunan, with a total of 3 stations in Tongren, Tongren North and Phoenix Ancient City.
Tongji Railway is an important regional connection line in the "Medium and Long-term Railway Network Plan" approved by the State Council, and is also a major project supported by the "Opinions of the State Council on Supporting Guizhou to Blaze a New Road in the Development of the Western Region in the New Era" and the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Modern Comprehensive Transportation System".
Because the railway will become an important new transportation channel connecting Hunan and Guizhou after completion, and will play a great role in promoting regional social and economic development and the development of regional tourism resources, it has been highly anticipated by residents along the line for many years. At the same time, it has also attracted a lot of attention and heated discussions because of its long preparatory process and slow progress process.
Shu Youbo, chairman of Guizhou Tongyu Railway Co., Ltd., the construction party of the Tongji Railway, said in an interview with China News Weekly that the design speed of the Tongji Railway is 250 km/h, the investment is 9.302 billion yuan, and the construction period is 4 years, "We plan to start construction within this year and strive to open to traffic by the end of 2028."
It is difficult to build
Tongji Railway is one of the constituent sections of the Jiyu Railway (Jishou-Yuping), which consists of two sections: the Tongyu Railway (Tongren to Yuping) and the Tongji Railway. Among them, the Tongyu Railway has been put into operation on December 26, 2018, realizing the fastest 1 hour and 32 minutes between Tongren and Guiyang.
At present, Tongren has two passenger stations, Tongren Station and Tongren South Station, but Tongren South Station is located in Yuping County, which was renamed from the original Yuping East Station and opened in June 2015. It is understood that the station is 65 kilometers away from Tongren city and takes more than an hour's drive. According to the plan, the new Tongren North Station is located in Chuantong New District, Chuantong Town, Bijiang District, Tongren, adjacent to Fenghuang County, Hunan, and will become the largest comprehensive transportation hub and air-rail transfer center in Tongren after completion. Therefore, for the construction of the Tongji Railway, Tongren has been looking forward to it for many years.
Geographical map of the new Tongren-Jishou railway. Photo / provided by the interviewee
In fact, as early as 2015, the Tongji Railway completed the preparation of the pre-feasibility study report of the project, and consulted the governments of Hunan Province, Guizhou Province and the line line.
From September 23 to 26, 2017, the former China Railway Corporation organized a review meeting for the "Tongren-Jishou Railway Feasibility Study" in Tongren, and then completed the revised draft of the feasibility study at the end of October 2017. On November 11, 2020, China Railway Group organized a project feasibility study review meeting, and the procedures for supporting the pre-approval of the feasibility study, such as social stability assessment, land use pre-examination and planning and site selection opinions, have been completed, and the relevant procedures for the Hunan section are being accelerated. According to the plan at that time, the project should start construction by the end of 2021 after completing various approval procedures. However, since then, the construction of the Tongji railway has stagnated.
In December 2021, some netizens asked about the progress of the feasibility study and approval of the Tongji Railway, and the Guizhou Provincial Development and Reform Commission replied that the preconditions for the feasibility study and approval of the Tongji Railway have been met, but due to the adjustment of the planning of the Phoenix Scenic Area in the Hunan section affected by the non-approval of the land and space strategic plan, and the approval of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration has not been obtained, they are actively cooperating with the China Railway Group to promote the feasibility study report and submit it to the National Development and Reform Commission for approval.
During the two sessions over the years, local representatives in Tongren have also been calling for the start of construction of the Tongji railway project. For example, during the two sessions of the National People's Political Consultative Conference this year, Wang Biao, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice mayor of Tongren City, submitted a proposal on "accelerating the start of construction of the Tongji Railway Project". He suggested that the national level should speed up the approval progress of the Tongji Railway, approve the feasibility study report of the project as soon as possible, and include it in the overall plan of the project to start construction in 2024, and strive to achieve the substantive start of construction of the project as soon as possible.
For the progress of the project, Guizhou Tongyu Railway Co., Ltd., the builder of the Guizhou section of the Tongji Railway, is more aware of the ins and outs. Shu Youbo said that the Hunan section of the Tongji Railway will pass through the Phoenix Ancient City Scenic Area, so the environmental assessment requirements are higher, and factors such as the direction of the line and the ecological restoration of the scenic area need to be considered. Although the project is not in the core area, it happens to coincide with the reform of state institutions, so the plan for the Phoenix section of the Tongji Railway has been waiting for the approval of the general plan before it can be continued.
He said that in 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission will include the project in the national key project to promote the start of construction, carry out regular scheduling, repeatedly communicate and coordinate with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the China Railway Group and other relevant departments, as well as Hunan and Guizhou provinces, and finally reach a unified opinion, and the project has made substantial progress.
According to public information, in February this year, the Phoenix Scenic Area Management Office mentioned that the "Phoenix Scenic Area Master Plan (2019-2035)" (2023 Edition) has been submitted to the ministry for final instructions, which means that the last hurdle of the feasibility study and approval of the Tongji Railway has been broken. Subsequently, the feasibility study report of the project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.
According to the relevant regulations of railway construction, there are two key nodes in the start of railway engineering: the approval of the feasibility study of the project and the approval of the preliminary design plan, the former is the policy basis, and the latter is the technical basis. The approval of the feasibility study report means that the railway is officially approved for construction.
Although the feasibility study report of the Tongji railway was approved, its construction still faces certain challenges. A person involved in the design of the Tongji Railway told China News Weekly that the Tongji Railway is located at the eastern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, at the southern foot of the Wuling Mountains, which is a low mountain and hilly area, and the overall topography is high in the west and low in the east.
Construct a new channel for the province
Tongren is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Guizhou Province, located in the northeast of Guizhou Province and the hinterland of Wuling Mountains. Jishou belongs to Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan Province, and is the capital city of the autonomous prefecture, which is also located in the Wuling Mountains.
It is understood that the Wuling Mountainous Area, located at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou, is a collection of old revolutionary base areas and ethnic minority areas, and was one of the 14 "concentrated contiguous extremely poor areas" on the mainland in the past.
Cityscape of Tongren City. Photo/Visual China
Cityscape of Jishou City. Photo/Visual China
Lu Wei, director of the Regional Open Office of the Institute of Land Development and Regional Economy of the China Macroeconomic Research Institute, told China News Weekly that in recent years, the Wuling Mountain Area has developed rapidly, the infrastructure has been continuously improved, and the entire area has achieved comprehensive poverty alleviation, but the overall economic strength, social development stage, infrastructure status and people's living standards are lagging behind the eastern coastal areas of the mainland, the western provincial capitals and regional central cities, and the cities (prefectures) in the area are relatively lagging behind in the province.
In 2023, Tongren's GDP will be 151.41 billion yuan, and the total economic output will exceed 150 billion yuan for the first time, ranking 7th among the 9 cities (prefectures) in Guizhou, and the GDP of Xiangxi Prefecture, where Jishou is located, will be 82.6 billion yuan in 2023, ranking 13th among the 14 cities (prefectures) in Hunan Province.
Lu Wei pointed out that the main difficulties faced by this region include the lag in the construction of transportation infrastructure, the lack of a network of main roads in the region, and the lack of historical debts in railway and highway construction; The level of economic development is low, the urbanization rate is low, the industries are mainly mineral resources mining and processing, agricultural products and food processing, building materials, cultural tourism, etc., and the cultivation of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries is insufficient.
He believes that the current connection between Tongren and Chengdu-Chongqing and the Central Plains urban agglomeration is low; There is no high-speed connection with the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. After the completion of the Tongji Railway, the transportation accessibility will be greatly improved. For Tongren, the construction of the Tongji railway to the east will promote Tongren to connect Huaihua and merge into the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway and Huaiheng high-speed railway, and then reach the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta; To the north, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and other cities can be reached through the Zhangjihuai high-speed railway and the Zhengyi high-speed railway.
Shu Youbo also said that after the completion of the Tongji Railway, it will open up the dead-end road of the Tongyu Railway, build a convenient passage from Guizhou to the central region, and alleviate the transportation pressure of the Shanghai-Kunming, Beijing-Guangzhou and other road networks, which is of positive significance for completing the layout of the regional high-speed railway network and improving the balance and flexibility of the road network.
Lu Wei believes that Tongren and Jishou should seize the opportunity of the construction of the Tongji Railway to accelerate the industrial transformation and upgrading. He suggested that Tongren should actively build strategic emerging industrial clusters around new functional materials, big data, modern energy, etc., and Xiangxi Prefecture should cultivate industrial clusters around electronic components, liquid crystal displays, lithium-ion batteries, etc., actively undertake the transfer of upstream and downstream industries in and outside the province, and promote the extension of the chain and the supply chain. In his view, Tongren should also take the construction of the Tongji Railway as the starting point to build a regional transportation hub in eastern Qiandong that combines the central and western regions and connects the north and south. At the same time, we will build a large platform development model of "transportation + industry", drive the development of the industrial chain with the transportation chain, build a transportation hub economy and corridor economy, and build a comprehensive logistics service base integrating transportation, warehousing, distribution, information, exhibition and sales.
At the same time, Lu Wei also pointed out that Tongren and Xiangxi Prefecture are both population outflow areas, and the construction of Tongji Railway will improve regional accessibility at the same time, if the introduction and transformation and upgrading of industries cannot be effectively followed, the factors and population in the region may face the problem of being "siphoned" by the developed areas of the province and other developed areas of other provinces.
Create a golden channel for tourism
In addition to having a great potential impact on regional social and economic development, the Tongji Railway also has a far-reaching impact on promoting regional tourism integration.
Tongji Railway is located in the Wuling Mountain area, which is a gathering area of ethnic minorities and is rich in tourism resources along the line. Tongren City has Fanjing Mountain, a world natural heritage site and a national 5A-level tourist attraction, as well as other tourist attractions such as Cinnabar Ancient Town and Zhongnanmen Scenic Area. Jishou City has rich tourism resources such as canyons, ethnic customs and dwarf village bridges, and the surrounding area also has world-class tourist destinations such as Phoenix Ancient City and Zhangjiajie.
Fanjing Mountain Scenic Area, Jiangkou County, Tongren City. Photo/Visual China
Phoenix Ancient City, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Photo/Visual China
Zhang Yuewei, an associate professor at Guizhou Normal University's School of International Tourism and Culture, said in an interview with China News Weekly that in recent years, airplanes, high-speed railways and self-driving have solved Tongren's traffic problems well, but inter-provincial traffic has not been well connected. Taking Fanjing Mountain and Phoenix Ancient City as an example, although the straight-line distance between the two is very close, except for the limited tourist line through train, the round-trip between the two tourist attractions is not smooth. She believes that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of improving the connectivity and convenience of inter-provincial tourism.
It is worth noting that Tongren has always attached great importance to tourism development, and emphasized in the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Tongren City and the Long-Range Objectives for the Year 2035" that it will make every effort to promote the development of tourism and build Tongren into a first-class mountain tourism destination and a first-class resort and health destination at home and abroad.
Zhang Yuewei pointed out that after the completion of the Tongji Railway, it will effectively connect many world-class tourist attractions such as Fanjing Mountain, Phoenix Ancient City and Zhangjiajie to form a golden channel for tourism and provide important transportation support for promoting regional tourism and economic development. At the same time, it will promote the formation of a cross-regional tourism cooperation network, enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of regional tourism, and promote regional economic and social development with the help of the development of the tourism industry, so as to realize the effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in the Wuling Mountain area.
Zhang Yuewei suggested that Tongren and Jishou can make full use of Guizhou's layout and advantages in digital strategic industries, vigorously promote the development of smart tourism, and use scientific and technological means to provide more convenient and intelligent tourism services. At the same time, on the basis of the original tourism, cultivate new content, new scenarios and new products, make full use of the uniqueness of regional tourism resources, and help the tourism industry break through the traditional development model and achieve high-quality development through innovation-driven.
At the same time, she reminded that the benefits of infrastructure need to be evaluated in the long term, not only in terms of direct economic inputs and returns, but also in terms of social, environmental and comprehensive benefits. "Transportation is only an important part of the tourism industry, and behind the greater traffic brought by rail in the region, it needs to cultivate and provide matching supporting facilities and service supply." Zhang Yuewei said.
Author: Chen Shulian