On May 1, 2026, the construction of the ZTXZQ-1 section of the Wuhan hub through line project, which was undertaken by China Railway 16th Bureau, officially began. This move marks a new stage of substantive construction for the Wuhan hub through line project of the Yangtze River high-speed railway.

Current situation and limitations of the channel

The Yangtze River Channel is one of the most important channels in China's eight vertical and eight horizontal high-speed railway network, and is also a core component of the Yangtze River Delta Chengdu Chongqing main axis of the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network. As a multi branch and multi-path transportation channel, it connects the core central cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing, and Chengdu. Due to the early introduction of medium and long-term planning, most sections of the Yangtze River corridor are planned to use existing lines, including the Hewu Railway, Hanyi Railway, Yiwan Railway, Yuli Railway, Dacheng Railway, etc., with operating speeds of only 160 to 250 kilometers per hour, greatly limiting the transportation capacity of the corridor.

Channel upgrade plan

In August 2018, the country issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the Construction of High speed Railway Channels along the Yangtze River Economic Belt", which clearly proposed a three-step strategy for the construction of high-speed railways along the Yangtze River. From then on, the entire Yangtze River corridor was planned according to the high-speed railway standard of 350 kilometers per hour and officially named the Shanghai Chongqing Chengdu High speed Railway. After the introduction of the Chengdu Chongqing Economic Circle Plan in early 2020, the construction of the Chengdu Chongqing Central High speed Railway was put on the agenda, and as China's first high-speed railway demonstration line with a speed of 400 kilometers per hour, it was included in the construction of the main channel of the Yangtze River high-speed railway. According to the plan, the main channel of the Shanghai Chongqing Chengdu high-speed railway along the Yangtze River is about 2080 kilometers long, with a total investment of about 550 billion yuan. The Yangtze River Coastal Railway Company, led by China Railway Group, is responsible for the specific implementation. Specifically, the channel includes six key projects, namely the Shanghai Nanjing Hefei, Hefei Wuhan, Wuhan Yichang, Yichang Fuling, Chongqing Chengdu, and Wuhan Hub Direct Line. In the long-term plan, a new section from Fuling to Chongqing will also be built.

Construction progress

Among these six major projects, the Wuhan Yichang section started construction earliest, in September 2021, and was completed and opened to traffic on December 26, 2025; The North Yangtze River (Shanghai Nanjing) high-speed railway and the Chengdu Chongqing central line will start construction in the second half of 2022, with plans to open to traffic by 2027; The section from Hefei to Wuhan will start construction in early 2024 and is expected to be opened to traffic in 2028; The Yichang Fuling section has fully started construction by the end of 2024 and is planned to be completed and opened to traffic by the end of 2030. At that time, the main high-speed railway line along the Yangtze River with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be fully connected.

Therefore, the Wuhan Hub Direct Line Project has become the last piece of the puzzle for the high-speed rail corridor along the Yangtze River. After the completion of the project, it will connect the two major national high-speed railway arteries along the Yangtze River and Fuyin, achieving high standard connectivity within the Wuhan hub. At present, there are multiple options for the running time of high-speed trains from Chengdu to Shanghai: it takes 12.5 hours to pass through the existing Shanghai Hankou Chengdu Railway, 11.5 hours to bypass the Xicheng and Xulan high-speed railways, and 13 hours to pass through the Chengdu Guiyang and Shanghai Kunming high-speed railways. After the completion of the entire high-speed railway along the Yangtze River, the running time of high-speed trains from Chengdu, Chongqing to Nanjing and Shanghai will be significantly shortened. Keywords: Transportation, Yangtze River High speed Railway, China Railway 16th Bureau

According to calculations, if operated at a speed of 310 kilometers per hour, combined with the scheduling of major stations in provincial capitals, and considering the speed limit impact of hubs in Chongqing, Wuhan, Hefei, and Shanghai, the travel time from Chengdu to Shanghai can still be compressed to within 8.5 hours. Due to the lack of significant time advantage for the Nanjing to Shanghai section of the North Yangtze River high-speed railway, if this section runs through existing lines such as the Shanghai Nanjing and Nanjing Hangzhou intercity railways, the time can be further reduced by more than half an hour.Editor/Gong Ziwei