| Lanzhou–Chongqing railway | |
| Other Name: | Lanyu railway (兰渝铁路) |
| Type: | Higher-speed rail, Heavy rail |
| Status: | Operational Chongqing - Guangyuan opened Dec 2015 Guangyuan - Minxian opened Dec 2016 Minxian - Lanzhou opened Sep 2017 |
| Locale: | China |
| Start: | Lanzhou East |
| End: | Chongqing |
| Routes: | 1 |
| Operator: | China Railway Chengdu Group & China Railway Lanzhou Group |
| Linelength: | 8320NaN0 |
| Electrification: | Electrified |
| Speed: | 200 km/h (Chongqing-Guangyuan)160 km/h (Guangyuan-Lanzhou) |
| Map State: | collapsed |
Lanzhou–Chongqing railway or Lanyu railway ("Lan" and "Yu" being the abbreviations for Lanzhou and Chongqing) is a higher-speed railway in China connecting Lanzhou and Chongqing. Construction started in 2010, last segment of the railway was opened for service in September 2017.[1] [2] The line allows trains to travel between Chongqing and Lanzhou, Gansu via Nanchong and Guangyuan, Sichuan.
With a total length of, of which is located within Gansu Province, in addition to the construction of a branch to Nanchong and Guang'an that is long. It was built as a new double line electrified railway, with freight train capable of up to, passenger trains traveling at . The capacity of the line is expected at 50 train pairs per day and 50,000,000 tonnes of freight per year. The railway is designed to permit double-stack container operations.[3]
Lanzhou–Chongqing railway project was estimated to need a total investment of 77.4 billion yuan, of which the Gansu Provincial Government invested about 43 billion yuan, with the rest of the funding was coming from a Ministry of Railways, Sichuan and Chongqing joint construction effort. The construction period was expected to take 6 years. By the completion of the railway rail transport from Lanzhou and Chongqing is shortened from 1466km (911miles) to 820km (510miles), conventional train running time is reduced to 7 hours from 17.5 hours. Fast trains will complete the route in 5.5 hours.
Recent high speed rail reforms has also meant direct Chengdu-Lanzhou and Chongqing-Xi'an services will use a combination of Xi'an–Chengdu high-speed railway and Chongqing–Lanzhou high-speed railway from where they meet at Guangyuan, Sichuan. This will reduce the need for a separate direct Chongqing-Xi'an or Chengdu-Lanzhou line.[4]
Because of hilly terrain between Guangyuan and Lanzhou on of railway there are 285 bridges totaling (13% of the route) and 178 tunnels totaling (63% of the route). Twelve of the tunnels will exceed in length, while the longest tunnel, West Qinling Tunnel, measures .[5]
Lanzhou–Chongqing railway runs west out of Lanzhou City through Yuzhong County, Weiyuan County, Min County, Tanchang County, Longnan City in Gansu. Crossing into Sichuan Province territory, it then travels by Guangyuan, Cangxi County, Langzhong, Nanbu County, Nanchong. Finally it enters Chongqing City via Hechuan District and Beibei District before terminating at Chongqing North railway station.
In October 2011, during the construction of the railway, 21 railway workers were killed when the vehicle they were traveling in overturned in Lintao County, Gansu. Seven other workers were injured.[14]