This extensive new higher-speed railway, when completed, will reduce travel times of about 48 hours to just 13.
When fully complete, the line will connect Chengdu (in Sichuan, China) and Lhasa (in Tibet), meaning the full length will be around 1,012 miles long and will become the shortest railway connection between the areas.
The Sichuan-Tibet Railway began back in 2014, and currently two sections of the line – from Chengdu-Ya’an and the Nyingchi-Lhasa – are operational. The former opened in 2018, with the latter following three years later.
The third section, linking Ya’an to Nyingchi, began construction in November 2020, and is expected to continue until the early 2030s.
The railway will officially be a “higher-speed rail” (HrSR), also known as a high-performance rail, with train speeds higher than conventional rail, but not as high as high-speed rail services including that which connects Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. This will be the region’s first electrified railway and the first higher-speed rail on the plateau.
The first section, at 87 miles long, has a design speed of 124mph, while the second, at 270 miles long, runs at 99mph. This reduces travel time between Lhasa and Nyingchi from about five to about three and a half hours, while journeys between Shannan and Nyingchi now can be completed in about two hours as opposed to six by car.
The incomplete section, which will be a staggering 628 miles long, is expected to run at speeds between 75 and 124mph. In total, it will cut travel time from about 48 hours to 13 hours.
This railway will be the second line into the Tibetan region, the first being Qinghai-Tibet, which was a notoriously challenging network to construct, opening in 1984 and 2006. While the previous network was deemed sufficient to support the rather small resident population of 3.5 million, compared with 1.4 billion in China, there were higher requirements for transport to access Tibet’s rich resources. The new railway line was pitched in 2011.
Allegedly, there are over 100 types of minerals found in Tibet, with currently only 22 developed and utilised. Tibet has also been described as the “water tower of Asia”, having extremely rich hydropower resources, expected to reach 200 million kilowatts. It was also deemed to be conducive to promoting exchanges and economic development between Tibet and Eurasian countries, and have major impacts on tourism.
Tibet, on the high northern side of the Himalayas, is an autonomous region of China. Due to its towering peaks, including Mt. Everest, it has earned the nickname of the “Roof of the World”. Its capital, Lhasa, is the site of the Potala Palace, once the Dalai Lama’s winter home.
The total cost of the entire new project is given at around 319.8 billion RMB, or £34 billion. This cost is around ten times more expensive than the previous network, and initially raised questions about whether it was really necessary.
The network has been notoriously difficult to construct, partly because of the extreme elevation changes. In fact, the Sichuan basin lies only about 300 metres above sea level, while the terminal on the Tibetan Plateau is located at about 3,000 metres above sea level. About 90 percent of the network runs at an altitude of above 3,000 metres. The areas being tunnelled through are also home to high-temperature earth-crust, often with temperatures so extreme it is too hot for humans and machines to bear.
The Nyingchi segment runs through the Yarlung Tsangpo river valley a total of 16 times, meaning the construction of 47 tunnels and 121 bridges were also required, including the 6.2-mile Milin tunnel, which sits at an altitude of 3,100 metres. The final segment, Ya’an-Nyingchi, is expected to have 72 tunnels, with several over 19 miles in length.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, who recently called for the completion of the railway, desvcribed the project as a “major step in safeguarding national uniting and consolidating border stability,” as well as being “significant to promote economic and social development” of the western region.
