Tianpu Railway in Sichuan, China, Opens with a Total Length of About 82 Kilometers

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 30, the newly built Tianpu Railway (official project name: the Tianfu–Chaoyanghu Section of the Chengdu Hub Introduction Line of the Sichuan–Tibet Railway) opened for operation, with initial EMU trains running from October 31. The line starts at Tianfu Station, passes through Tianfu New Area, Shuangliu District, Xinjin District of Chengdu City, Pengshan District of Meishan City, Qionglai City, and Pujiang County, and connects to the existing Chaoyanghu Station on the Chengdu–Ya'an Railway. It is a Grade I national railway with double-track mixed passenger and freight service, with a total length of about 82 kilometers and a maximum operating speed of 200 km/h.

The engineering composition of the line has been clarified in the bidding and acceptance documents. The newly built main line is 80.327 kilometers long, with additional 8.856 kilometers of up and down bidirectional connecting lines linking to Puxing Station on the existing Chengdu–Kunming Railway, and 1.479 kilometers of up and down bidirectional connecting lines linking to the Chengdu–Kunming Railway. The main line has a total of 56.389 kilometers of bridges and tunnels, with a bridge-tunnel ratio of 70.2%, including 52 bridges totaling 53.663 kilometers and 5 tunnels totaling 2.726 kilometers. The line was originally designed for a speed of 160 km/h, with 200 km/h conditions reserved in the horizontal alignment, and was upgraded to 200 km/h during implementation. The line has 5 stations: Tianfu, Xinjin South, Shou'an, Pujiang, and Chaoyanghu. Tianfu Station is under construction, Shou'an Station is newly built, Xinjin South Station and Pujiang Station are existing stations undergoing reconstruction and expansion, and Chaoyanghu Station is an existing station. Pujiang Station has been upgraded from 2 platforms and 2 tracks to 4 platforms and 6 tracks, enabling interconnection between this line and the Chengdu–Ya'an Railway.

In the initial period of operation, 3 pairs of EMU trains run daily between Ya'an and Chongqing West, Luzhou, and Yibin. For the first time, direct EMU services are operated between Ya'an and Tianfu Airport Station and between Ya'an and Yibin Station, with the fastest travel times of 80 minutes and 2 hours 39 minutes respectively. The railway department implements a flexible discount and differentiated market-based ticket pricing mechanism on the Tianpu Railway, with specific fares available through 12306. After reconstruction and expansion, Xinjin South Station has a station building area of about 3,000 square meters and a designed maximum gathering capacity of 300 people, with same-station transfer to the Chengdu–Guiyang High-Speed Railway; Shou'an Station has a side-platform layout, with a building area of about 3,000 square meters and a maximum gathering capacity of 300 people; after reconstruction and expansion, Pujiang Station has a station building area of about 5,000 square meters and a maximum gathering capacity of 700 people.

The Tianpu Railway connects to the Chengdu–Zigong–Yibin High-Speed Railway to the north, the Chengdu–Kunming Railway to the south, and the Chengdu–Ya'an Railway to the west, and connects to Chengdu West, Chengdu East, and other stations via the Chengdu Hub. Its function is to connect the Tianfu New Area, Shuangliu, Xinjin, Pengshan, Qionglai, and Pujiang corridor to the existing railway network of the Chengdu Hub, rather than to build a new line independent of the regional rail network.

Construction of the Tianpu Railway began on December 1, 2022, and comprehensive joint commissioning and testing was launched across the entire line in August 2026. Before opening, comprehensive optimization, adjustment, and safety assessment of track conditions, pantograph-catenary performance, train control, and communication and signal systems were completed. The estimated total investment of the project is 12.263 billion yuan.