Datong–Xi'an high-speed railway or Daxi HSR () is a dual-track,

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

, high-speed rail line operated by CR Taiyuan Group and CR Xi'an Group between

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cen ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

and

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ning ...

. It has a length of through the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi Province, traversing the north-south axis of the former, and will accommodate trains traveling at speeds up to . Travel time between the two terminal cities will be reduced from 16.5 hours to about three hours.

Route

The high speed rail line will run down the length of Shanxi Province from

in the north through

Shuozhou Shuozhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the northwest. It is situated along the upper reaches of the Fen River. The prefecture as a whole has an area of about and, in 2010, a popu ...

Xinzhou Xinzhou, ancient name Xiurong (秀荣), is a prefecture-level city occupying the north-central section of Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei to the east, Shaanxi to the west, and Inner Mongolia to the northwest ...

, the provincial capital

Taiyuan Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province ...

Jinzhong Jinzhong, formerly Yuci, is a prefecture-level city in east central Shanxi province of the People's Republic of China, bordering Hebei province to the east. As of the 2020 census, its total population was 3,379,498 inhabitants whom 1,226,617 ...

Linfen Linfen is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. It is situated along the banks of the Fen River. It has an area of and according to the 2020 Census, a population of 3,976, ...

and

Yuncheng Yuncheng is the southernmost prefecture-level city in Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. It borders Linfen and Jincheng municipalities to the north and east, and Henan (Luoyang and Jiyuan to the east, Sanmenxia to the south) and Sh ...

. It crosses the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan ...

at Yongji, enter Shaanxi and reach Xian via

Weinan Weinan () is a prefecture-level city in the east central Shaanxi province, China. The city lies on the lower section of the Wei River confluence into the Yellow River, about east of the provincial capital Xi'an, and borders the provinces of S ...

and

Lintong Lintong District (), formerly Lintong County, is one of 11 District (China), urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province, Northwest China. The district was approved to establish from the former ' ...

. As of 2022, most of the high-speed line is finished, but the section between Huairen East and Yuanping West runs on the 153 kilometre-long Hanjialing–Yuanping railway, a line built mainly for freight with a design speed of 160 kilometres per hour that was opened on 29 March 2014 to bypass a section of the Datong–Puzhou railway. In future passenger traffic will run on a section of the new Jining–Datong–Yuanping high-speed railway that has been officially under construction next to the line from Datong South to Yuanping West since June 2020. Another short section of main line runs through and . The whole line now forms part of the

Beijing–Kunming corridor The Beijing–Kunming corridor is a high-speed rail corridor running from Beijing to Kunming in Yunnan Province. The main route passes from Beijing through Xiong'an, Xinzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an and Chengdu before reaching Kunming. Apart from the main ...

of the 8+8 HSR Grid, now under development. The section between Xi'an and Xinzhou (where the proposed Xiong'an–Xinzhou high-speed railway—''Xiongxin HSR''—would branch off to

Xiong'an Xiong'an New Area () is a state-level new area in the Baoding area of Hebei, China. Established in April 2017, the area is located about 100 km southwest of Beijing and 50 km east of downtown Baoding. Its main function is to serve as ...

) forms part of its main line, while the section between Xinzhou and Datong forms part of the Beijing–Zhangjiakou–Datong–Taiyuan branch. Together with the

Shijiazhuang–Taiyuan high-speed railway The Shijiazhuang–Taiyuan high-speed railway, or the Shitai passenger railway () is a high-speed railway operated by China Railway High-speed, running from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, respectively the provincial capitals of Hebei and Shanx ...

, the Taiyuan-Xi'an section of the Datong–Xi'an passenger railway provides a potential more direct route for high-speed passenger trains between Beijing and Xi'an (and points west) than the usual route via

Zhengzhou Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the Nationa ...

(1092 km via Taiyuan vs. 1212 km). However, as of early 2015, this route appears to be slower than the one via Zhengzhou, and does not seem to be used by any direct Beijing-Xi'an trains. Instead, some services run from Beijing via Taiyuan to the southwestern Shanxi (mostly

), while others run between Taiyuan and Xi'an.

History

Construction began on 3 December 2009 and was expected to cost ¥96.3 billion. The line was scheduled to be completed by 2013 or 2014. The Taiyuan-Xi'an section of the railway was opened on July 1, 2014; the Taiyuan-Yuanping section was opened on September 28, 2018; and the Datong-Yuanping section is currently not newly constructed but using quadruple tracks of North Tongpu Line between Yuanping West and Huairen East. Such service commenced on May 1, 2019.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Datong-Xian Passenger Dedicated Railway Line High-speed railway lines in China Rail transport in Shanxi Rail transport in Shaanxi