At 10:08am of July 1, D2251 train from Hankou to Chongqing North slowly pulled out of the Yichang Eastern Railway Station, which signifies that the Yichang-Wanzhou Railway was officially opened to traffic.
Starting from July 1, the Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu Fast Passenger Railway Channel has officially formed. Thus Yichang City has become the transport hub to connect the eastern, central and western China.
100% Booking for Maiden Trip of Bullet Train Along Yichang-Wanzhou Railway
At 10 am on July 1, the waiting room of Eastern Railway Station of Yichang was filled with passengers. They were waiting for D2251, the direct bullet train connecting Hankou and Chongqing North, which was also the first direct bullet train linking Chongqing and Yichang.
The colleagues Liu Yang and Yang Lian who respectively come from Yidu County and Dangyang County of Yichang city but work in Chongqing are waiting for this train. Several days before, they came back to Yichang to visit relatives. Having known that the direct bullet train from Yichang to Chongqing would be open to traffic on July 1, they immediately booked the tickets in advance.
Yang Lian said: “In the past, it took us more than ten hours to go to Chongqing. But now it is different. On June 28, I have already booked the ticket for the bullet train, and from now on I can go back to home more conveniently and frequently.”
Reporters learned that Yichang Eastern Railway Station transported 25,000 passengers on July 1 and 1,700 of them took the bullet train along the Yichang-Wanzhou Railway. The first D2251 bullet train starting from Wuhan had more than 90% attendance and attendance of the whole line was above 100%.
“Back to Sichuan and Chongqing in one day”-from a dream into reality
According to the person in charge of the Eastern Railway Station, July 1 was the first day of the re-adjustment of the train schedules and many trains still run according to the old timetable. From July 2, all trains will be operated according to new schedules, and it will be more convenient to travel from Yichang.
a total of 18 bullet trains went along the Yichang-Wanzhou Railway on July 1. The travel time from Wuhan to Chongqing and Wuhan to Chengdu is cut from 6 to 9 hours, and the travel time from some eastern cities such as Shanghai to Chongqing have also been shortened than before. Our dream of “back to Sichuan and Chongqing in one day” has come into reality.
From July 1, the passenger trains operated by the Yichang Railway Division increased from 77 pairs to 82 pairs, 60% of which are bullet trains and high-speed trains. The Yichang-Wanzhou Railway will increase the direct bullet trains to Chongqing, Chengdu, Xiamen, Fuzhou and other cities, in order to make Yichang have wider and closer connection with different cities of China.
Yichang-from a destination to a transport hub
The Yichang-Wanzhou Railway, with a total length of 377 km, is located in Chongqing Province and the mountainous area of the southwest Hubei Province, which is an important transport hub linking the eastern, central and western China. The Karst, subsurface rivers and other very complex land forms spread all over the area that the railway stretches. Altogether 159 tunnels and 253 bridges, which accounts for 74% of the total line, have been built. This railway is generally acknowledged as “the world’s most challenging railway” by the experts.
The Yichang-Wanzhou Railway was officially open to traffic on November 22 of 2010. Since then, Yichang has changed from a destination to a transport hub.
As the Chonqing-Lichun Railway was open to traffic in December 2013, more passengers from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Fuzhou and other directions come to Sichuan and Chongqing. But the Yichang- Wanzhou Section cannot operate the bullet train at that time, the passengers who arrived in Yichang by bullet trains or high-speed trains had no choice but to transfer to another train to their destinations.
Guo Bing, the deputy as well as the spokesman of the Yichang Railway Division, said that the operation of the Yichang-Wanzhou bullet trains has helped turn Yichang into a transport hub, which can connect the eastern, central and western China.
Peng Qiyuan, Dean of School of transportation and lLgistics of Southwest Jiaotong University, made the following remarks: “A railway can link all cities along it to each other, which can greatly promote regional economy. The biggest characteristic of the Shanghai-Chengdu bullet train is that it goes through the eastern, central and western China, so now its operation will facilitate economic activities and strengthen cooperation between the cities of these three areas. In the future, a large number of resources of the western region can be transported to the other areas with a lower cost. Yichang is going to play a big role in it.
Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei-A “golden travel route”
The operation of the Yichang-Wanzhou Railway has not only shortened our travel time to Sichuan and Chongqing, but also greatly reduced the travel time of the passengers from the other places to Yichang. The personnel of the tourism industry believe that its operation will help Sichuan, Chongqing, and Hubei together form a new golden travel route.
On June 28, many travel agencies of Enshi have come to Yichang to recommend the tours to Enshi. Previously, many travel agencies of Chongqing and Chengdu also have come to Yichang for recommending tours of their cities. At present, major travel agencies of Yichang have begun to accept individual and group registrations for the tours to Chengdu and Chongqing.
According to the head of a travel agency in Yichang, the “high-speed transportation” brought by the bullet train will help combine the scenic spots of Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei together. Many travel agents have found out the business opportunities stimulated by it, so many of them including the travel agents in Xiamen, Zhangjiajie have started planning bullet-train tours to Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei. (Reporter:Tan Ting; Correspondent: Zhang Wenbo)