On December 30, with the simultaneous opening of the Hefei-Sixian County section of the Hefei-Xinyi high-speed railway and Hefeixi Station, Mingguang, Wuhe, and Sixian County bid farewell to their history of being inaccessible by high-speed rail. This expansion has added a critical artery to the high-speed rail network of Hefei and even Anhui as a whole, injecting robust momentum into the high-quality development of the region.

With this milestone, the total railway mileage in Anhui has reached 5,935 kilometers, of which 2,971 kilometers are high-speed rail lines. This places Anhui third in the nation and first in the Yangtze River Delta region in terms of high-speed rail mileage. A modern railway network layout has essentially taken shape, centered on Hefei, with high-speed rail as its backbone and conventional railways as its foundation.

Just a few days ago, the total operational length of China's high-speed rail network surpassed 50,000 kilometers. Another set of noteworthy data reveals that since the beginning of this year, railways in the Yangtze River Delta have served over 900 million passenger trips. This means that out of every ten people in China's total population, six have traveled by train within the Yangtze River Delta region.

Within the world's largest and most modern high-speed railway network, Hefei and Anhui hold significant positions as the "leading city in the Yangtze River Delta" and the "top high-speed rail province in the Yangtze River Delta," respectively.

As of now, Hefei has launched direct high-speed rail services to 24 provincial capitals (including municipalities) and over 140 prefecture-level cities. Its four-hour commuting radius essentially covers regions contributing 80% of the nation's GDP.

According to Liang Bowen, a train conductor of the High-Speed Rail Team One under Hefei Passenger Transport Section, high-speed trains with a designed speed of 350 km/h have not only dramatically shortened travel times between cities along the routes but also unlocked critical connectivity for regional integration. This has injected new vitality into local travel and industrial collaboration, making intercity commuting, business exchanges, and weekend trips more convenient and efficient.

Chen Jian, a third-level researcher at the Railway Construction Office of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the province still has a batch of railway projects under construction. These include nine major line projects, such as the Hefei-Nanjing-Shanghai, Hefei-Wuhan, Chaohu-Ma'anshan intercity, and Hefei-Chizhou lines, totaling 964 kilometers in length with a total investment of 192.6 billion yuan. 

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the province will also advance the implementation of projects such as the Sixian County-Suqian section of the Hefei-Xinyi high-speed railway, Nanyang-Xinyang-Hefei, Fuyang-Huanggang, Ma'anshan-Zhenjiang (Yangzhou), and Bengbu-Chuzhou-Nanjing lines. Efforts will be made to secure the inclusion and execution of a series of projects aimed at enhancing network connectivity, filling gaps, and strengthening the railway chain in the national plan. By then, Hefei will achieve direct high-speed rail connections with all other cities within the province. A high-speed rail travel network will be fundamentally established, enabling one-hour travel between cities within Anhui, two-hour access to other cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, and three-hour connectivity to cities in other central regions of China.  

Source: Hefei Evening News