A 500-meter-long steel rail was paved by the CPG500 track-laying machine operated by China Railway 14th Bureau Group Co Ltd near Zhangwu Station in Fuxin, Liaoning province on Jan 7. The rail is part of a new high-speed line which will, when completed, be the first high-speed railway to connect Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Northeast China.

The new high-speed line starts from Tongliao in Inner Mongolia and ends in Liaoning’s Xinmin, which is one stop along the Beijing-Shenyang Railway.

Construction work on the railway began in June 2016. It stretches 197 kilometers and is designed for speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour. The line is expected to be completed by June and will enter a testing period the following month. 

The travel time from Tongliao to Shenyang will be cut from five hours to just one and a half hours thanks to new line, and the trip from Beijing to Tongliao will be cut to three and a half hours from the previous 14.

This project connects and shortens the space-time distance between Tongliao and Beijing and Shenyang, while playing an important role in integrating Tongliao into the Bohai Rim, Liaozhongnan and Northeast Economic Circles, as well as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated economic circle.

Workers from China Railway 14th Bureau Group Co Ltd operate a track-laying machine near Zhangwu Station in Fuxin, Liaoning province on Jan 7. [Photo/nmgnews.com.cn]