The Nanjing–Qidong railway (), commonly referred to in short as the Ningqi railway (), is a

higher-speed rail Higher-speed rail (HrSR), also known as high-performance rail, higher-performance rail, semi-high-speed rail or almost-high-speed rail, is the jargon used to describe inter-city passenger rail services that have top speeds of more than convent ...

line in

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

Province, China. Its common name is derived from ''Ning'', the one-character abbreviation for Nanjing and ''Qi'', which refers to Qidong, a county-level city of

Nantong Nantong (; alternate names: Nan-t'ung, Nantung, Tongzhou, or Tungchow; Qihai dialect: ) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. ...

. Until 2019, the railway only ran as far as east as Nantong East railway station. On January 5, 2019, the line was extended to Qidong and it is now long. It runs along the northern bank of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

, serving cities such as

Yangzhou Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north ...

, Taizhou, and

Hai'an Hai'an () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nantong, in eastern Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of ...

. Passenger service was formerly operated between Nanjing railway station and

Nantong railway station Nantong railway station () is a railway station in Chongchuan District, Nantong, Jiangsu, China. It is an intermediate station on the Nanjing–Qidong railway The Nanjing–Qidong railway (), commonly referred to in short as the Ningqi railway ...

only.火车东站综合交通枢纽工程勘察设计总承包
A frequent service is now operated on the whole route from Nanjing to Qidong.

History

Planning for a railway along the north bank of the Yangtze River began as early as 1958. In 1977, the government of Jiangsu province designated the railway from Nanjing to Nantong as a project for completion within the next 10 years. Due to funding shortage and disagreement over route, the project was not built for 20 years. The project was revived in the late 1990s with the onset of construction on the

Xinyi–Changxing railway The Xinyi–Changxing railway or Xinchang railway (), also known as the Xinchang line (), is a single-track railway line in eastern China between the cities of Xinyi in Jiangsu Province and Changxing County in Zhejiang Province. It runs north-sout ...

, which was the first railway to be built in Jiangsu province north of the Yangtze River. In 2001, the Ministry of Railways approved plans for the Ningqi railway, and construction was built in two phases. The Nanjing to

section was built from March 1, 2002, to December 2003. The Haian to

and

sections were completed by July 2005. A major upgrade project on the Nanjing–Qidong railway was completed on December 20, 2015. This involved the electrification of the railway line and building a second track. This was expected to halve the travel time from Nantong to Nanjing from the previous 3 hours 50 min to 1 hour 50 min. The electrification is designed to permit operation of double-stack container trains but no such services are currently being operated. EMU trains entered trial operation on May 6, 2016 and started revenue service from May 15, 2016. Passenger service on an eastern single-track extension to Qidong (via Haimen) began on 5 January 2019. A further freight-only extension north towards Lusigang was also constructed. Plans were approved in 2012 for a cross-river connection from Nantong to the

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

metropolitan area (the Shanghai–Nantong railway). It connects to the Nanjing–Qidong railway at Zhaodian station (planning name: Pingdong) on the northwestern outskirts of Nantong's urban core. Construction work on the Hutong Yangtze River bridge started on March 1, 2014. The line was expected to open at the end of 2018, but it was opened on July 1, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanjing-Qidong Railway Railway lines in China Rail transport in Jiangsu Railway lines opened in 2005