On December 16th, Changsha South- Xinhuang West section of Changsha-Kunming passenger-dedicated line was in formal operation, showing that Hunan section of Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway is open to traffic. This project was an integrated project from communication, signaling, disaster protection to information system by Shanghai Civil Engineering Group.
In the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway, the distance from Changsha South to Xinhuang West is 416 km, 80% (345 km) among which is the length of bridges and tunnels. The line starts from Changsha South, goes across Xiang River, Shao Mountain and Loudi area, travels though Xuefeng Mountains and Wuling Mountain systems, and finally reaches Xinhuang. Long the line, there are nine station which are Changsha South, Xiangtan North, Shao Mountain South, Loudi South, Shaoyang North, Xinhua South, Xupu South, Huaihua South, Zhi River and Xinhuang West. The design speed of the line is 350 km/h, and the primary operation speed would be 300 km/h.
Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway is a crucial component of the Chinese high-speed railway backbone network “four vertical and four horizontal systems”- a mid and long term railway network plan by Chinese government. The formal operation of Hunan section signifies the end of the history that the passenger-dedicated line in the mountain area could be no more than 100 km/h. It would have a significantly positive impact on the social and economic development in the southwest area of Hunan. Ever since, the one-way trip from Changsha to Huaihua would only cost 1.5 hours instead of 8 hours.
During the construction, with the goal of building first-rate high-speed railways, Shanghai Civil Engineering Group has the advantages of managing the whole project in the three areas of design, supplying and implementation in an integrated way. With its advanced management expertise, rich resources, improved craft and technology and safety control management, Shanghai Civil Engineering Group and CRSC laid a solid foundation for the successful operation of the Hunan Section.