9 hours from Urumqi to Lanzhou

A comprehensive monitoring train was brought into service to test and debug the Lanzhou-Urumqi Passenger Line (Xinjiang section) on June 3, symbolizing the countdown to the first high-speed railway in Xinjiang.

The official speed of the Lanzhou-Urumqi Passenger Line in the Xinjiang section is 250km/h, almost twice the speed of current express trains there. After the line becomes operational and is connected with the rest of the domestic rail network, the traveling time from Urumqi to Lanzhou will be shortened from around 16 hours to 9 hours and that to Beijing will be shortened by a half.

After the opening of the new line, the old and new lines will carry out separate duties—the former as a freight line, the latter as a high-speed passenger line.

“It not only serves the high-speed trains!” said Fu Lianzhu, the chief engineer in charge of testing and debugging of the Lanzhou-Urumqi Passenger Line who works for the China Academy of Railway Sciences. The general electric locomotive and the high-speed train will both run on this line after its official operation.

Fu also said that due to the improvement in the line, the running speed of the general electric locomotive will be speeded up accordingly, and so the traffic artery connecting Xinjiang with areas inland will speed up accordingly.

A high-speed train [Photo/Xinhua]

Edited by Brian Salter and Le Qin