The Ningbo-Xiangshan suburban railway in Zhejiang Province began operations on September 22, opening a fresh rail link between Ningbo's urban areas and the city’s Xiangshan County.
The railway, which was jointly built by multiple subsidiaries of China Railway Group Limited, stretches across over 61 kilometers and has 10 stations, two of them underground and eight elevated. It can support trains running at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour, cutting the travel time between Ningbo’s urban areas and Xiangshan to about half an hour.
A train runs on the Xiangshan Bay cross-sea bridge. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The most striking feature of the railway is the Xiangshan Bay cross-sea bridge, which carries the railway across the East China Sea. The bridge is more than 8 km long, with a 1,376-meter main bridge and a 688-meter main span. It is China’s first cross-sea bridge for a suburban railway and currently the world’s longest-span cable-stayed railway bridge using ballastless track. Running parallel to an existing expressway bridge across Xiangshan Bay, it creates a distinctive “train at sea” view.
Doubling as the Xiangshan section of Ningbo Metro Line 12, the Ningbo-Xiangshan railway also brings greater convenience to people’s everyday lives. It will further improve Ningbo’s rail network and facilitate connections between Ningbo’s urban areas and its southern coastal regions, injecting new momentum into the coordinated development of the southern part of the entire city cluster.
(Executive editor: Zuo Shihan)
