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
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...
. It runs north-south through the entire length of
Jiangsu Province
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 ...
and the northern tip of Zhejiang. Major cities along route include
Huai'an,
Yancheng,
Hai'an,
Jingjiang,
Jiangyin and
Yixing. Including a 62.5 km spur from
Hai'an to
Nantong, the Xinchang railway is 638 km in total length. It used a
train ferry to cross the
Yangtze River, but this closed in 2019. Passenger services south of Hai'an have also been abandoned.
History
The Xinchang railway was the first railway to be built in Jiangsu Province north of the
Yangtze River. Construction began in September 1998 and the entire line was completed in April 2005. Passenger and freight service commenced on July 1, 2005. A connection to
Nantong (a section of the
Nanjing–Qidong railway
The Nanjing–Qidong railway (), commonly referred to in short as the Ningqi railway (), is a higher-speed rail line in Jiangsu Province, China. Its common name is derived from ''Ning'', the one-character abbreviation for Nanjing and ''Qi'', which ...
) was added in 2008. The train ferry closed on 16 December 2019. Passenger services south of Hai'an have also been abandoned.
Route
The Xinchang railway connects with the
Longhai and
Jiaozhou–Xinyi railways in the north and with the
Nanjing–Nantong,
Beijing–Shanghai,
Xuancheng–Hangzhou railways in the south.
Until 2019, the Xinchang line was the only major inland rail line in China to use a river
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
. As the railway has no bridge or tunnel crossing at the
Yangtze River, trains had to be ferried across the river from
Jingjiang on the northern side of the river (terminal at ) to
Jiangyin on the southern side (terminal at ). At its peak, a pair of ferries made 48 trips per day across the river.
[(Chinese]
"新长铁路轮渡日运送千余车皮 有效分流沪宁铁路运输压力" ''Xinhua''
Sept. 9, 2009
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xinyi-Changxing railway
Railway lines in China
Rail transport in Jiangsu
Rail transport in Zhejiang
Railway lines opened in 2005