Recently, the Qianjiang Jishou high-speed railway has achieved milestone progress: Chongqing Railway Investment Group and Hunan Railway Investment jointly held an expert review meeting on the engineering geological survey outline for the location survey stage in Beijing. This provides core technical support for the project's location survey and preliminary design, marking the substantive construction preparation stage of this strategic channel connecting Sichuan Chongqing and Xiangxi.

As the core section of the Chongqing Hunan high-speed railway, the Guizhou Jilin high-speed railway is an auxiliary channel of the national eight vertical and eight horizontal Chongqing Xiamen corridor, a component of the 350 km/h high-speed passenger transport corridor from Chengdu Chongqing to the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and a key puzzle of Chongqing's "meter" shaped high-speed railway network. Its completion will directly promote the goal of high-speed rail connecting every county in Chongqing, strengthen the rapid connection between the Chengdu Chongqing economic circle and the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and have strategic significance for optimizing the regional road network structure and promoting economic development in the Wuling mountainous area.

The total length of the line is 224.2 kilometers, with 152.6 kilometers within Chongqing and 71.6 kilometers within Hunan Province. The bridge tunnel ratio is as high as 94.8%, setting a new record for similar projects. The entire line is equipped with Qianjiang Station (connecting to the under construction Chongqing Xiamen high-speed railway), three new stations in Youyang West, Xiushan North, and Huayuan, and Jishou East Station (connecting to the Zhang Jihuai high-speed railway), with a total investment of approximately 46.4 billion yuan. The high bridge tunnel ratio means that the project needs to overcome complex geological conditions and requires extremely high accuracy in survey and design. This review meeting is precisely to lay a solid technical foundation for this.

Since the project was included in the "Multi level Rail Transit Plan for the Chengdu Chongqing Economic Circle" and the 14th Five Year Railway Development Plan at the end of 2021, the pace of progress has significantly accelerated. In September 2022, China Railway Group launched survey and design; Pass the pre feasibility study review in May 2024 and complete the feasibility study review in October; In August 2025, the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission revealed that China Railway Group had initiated the feasibility study approval process, and the design unit was simultaneously advancing the preliminary design, striving to approve the feasibility study within the year and start construction next year.

After the completion of the project, a high-speed railway corridor with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be opened up from Chongqing to Changsha, reducing the travel time between the two cities to 3.5 hours, which is half an hour shorter than the existing Guizhou Zhangchang railway route, forming a 3.5-hour high-speed railway circle between Chongqing and Hunan. This will not only improve personnel mobility efficiency, but also activate tourism resources along the route, such as Wuling Mountain, Youyang Taohuayuan, Jishou Aizhai Bridge, and promote industrial synergy and urban-rural integration development, becoming an important engine for the construction of the Western Land Sea New Corridor.

From the planning blueprint to the launch of the location survey, the Guizhou Jilin high-speed railway is advancing in an accelerated mode, and every step of its progress is injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of the Chongqing Hunan and even the Chengdu Chongqing dual city economic circle. Editor/Cheng Liting