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Nanjing–Qidong railway
Nanjing–Qidong railway
	A train arrives at Yangzhou railway station.
Overview
Other name(s)	Ningqi railway
Native name	南京–启东铁路
Status	Operating
Locale	Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
Termini	Nanjing railway station; Qidong railway station;
Service
Type	Higher-speed rail
History
Opened	July 2005
Technical
Line length	351 kilometres (218 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	200 km/h
Route map
Route map
	Legend
	Zhenjiang, Dantu
	Yangzhou East, Lianyungang
	This diagram: view; talk; edit;

The Nanjing–Qidong railway (simplified Chinese: 南京–启东铁路; traditional Chinese: 南京–啟東鐵路; pinyin: Nánjīng–Qǐdōng tiělù), commonly referred to in short as the Ningqi railway (simplified Chinese: 宁启铁路; traditional Chinese: 寧啟鐵路; pinyin: Níngqǐ tiělù), is a higher-speed rail line in Jiangsu Province, China. Its common name is derived from Ning, the one-character abbreviation for Nanjing and Qi, which refers to Qidong, a county-level city of Nantong.

Until 2019, the railway only ran as far as east as Nantong East railway station. On January 5, 2019, the line was extended to Qidong and it is now 351 kilometres (218 mi) long. It runs along the northern bank of the Yangtze River, serving cities such as Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Hai'an. Passenger service was formerly operated between Nanjing railway station and Nantong railway station only.^[1] A frequent service is now operated on the whole route from Nanjing to Qidong.

History

Planning for a railway along the north bank of the Yangtze River began as early as 1958. In 1977, the government of Jiangsu province designated the railway from Nanjing to Nantong as a project for completion within the next 10 years. Due to funding shortage and disagreement over route, the project was not built for 20 years. The project was revived in the late 1990s with the onset of construction on the Xinyi–Changxing railway, which was the first railway to be built in Jiangsu province north of the Yangtze River. In 2001, the Ministry of Railways approved plans for the Ningqi railway, and construction was built in two phases. The Nanjing to Hai'an section was built from March 1, 2002, to December 2003. The Haian to Yangzhou and Nantong sections were completed by July 2005.

A major upgrade project on the Nanjing–Qidong railway was completed on December 20, 2015. This involved the electrification of the railway line and building a second track. This was expected to halve the travel time from Nantong to Nanjing from the previous 3 hours 50 min to 1 hour 50 min.^[2]^[3] The electrification is designed to permit operation of double-stack container trains but no such services are currently being operated.^[4] EMU trains entered trial operation on May 6, 2016^[5] and started revenue service from May 15, 2016.^[6]

Passenger service on an eastern single-track extension to Qidong (via Haimen) began on 5 January 2019.^[7] A further freight-only extension north towards Lusigang was also constructed.

Plans were approved in 2012^[8] for a cross-river connection from Nantong to the Shanghai metropolitan area (the Shanghai–Nantong railway). It connects to the Nanjing–Qidong railway at Zhaodian station (planning name: Pingdong) on the northwestern outskirts of Nantong's urban core. Construction work on the Hutong Yangtze River bridge started on March 1, 2014.^[9] The line was expected to open at the end of 2018,^[10] but it was opened on July 1, 2020.

References

^ 火车东站综合交通枢纽工程勘察设计总承包 Archived 2017-08-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ 宁启铁路明年底改造完工; 南通至南京仅需两小时 Archived 2013-11-03 at the Wayback Machine (Ning–Qi railway upgrade to be completed by the end of the next year. Nantong to Nanjing in 2 hours.) 江海明珠网, 2013-10-27
^ 宁启铁路复线明年完工南通到南京1小时50分钟 Archived 2014-01-10 at the Wayback Machine (Double-tracking of the Qi–Ning railway will be completed by the end of the next year. Nantong to Nanjing in 1 hour 50 min), 2013-11-13
^ "宁启铁路复线电气化工程开工仪式在江苏泰州举行". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
^ 宁启铁路14对动车昨上线试跑 (in Chinese). 南京日报. May 7, 2016. Archived from the original on May 10, 2016. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
^ 开通时间敲定宁启动车周日开跑 (in Chinese). 新华日报. May 10, 2016. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
^ 扬子晚报网 (2019-01-06). "宁启铁路二期开通运营启东至南通间首通火车". news.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
^ "Chinese rail projects approved - Railway Gazette". Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
^ 沪通铁路2013年正式开建南通到上海仅需一小时 [Construction work on the Hu-Tong Railway will officially start in 2013. It will take just an hour to travel from Nantong to Shanghai] (in Chinese). December 24, 2012. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
^ "沪通铁路嘉定安亭段预计2018年底通车". 东方网. 2018-02-24. Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2018-06-19.