The Lhasa–Nyingchi railway () also known as the Lalin Line (), is a

single-track railway A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the c ...

across the southeast

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, linking

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

and

Nyingchi Nyingchi (), also known as Linzhi ( zh, s=林芝, p=Linzhi) or Nyingtri, is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. The administrative seat of Nyingchi is Bayi District. Nyingchi is the location of Buch ...

. It has a length of and a designed speed of per hour. The trains have been equipped with oxygen supply equipment. There are currently nine stations in the cities of Lhasa, Shannan, and Nyingchi that can handle both passengers and freight transportation.

Construction

Located in a valley between Gangdis and

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

in southeast Tibet, over 90% of the tracks are at an elevation of more than above sea level. The railway crosses the

Yarlung Tsangpo River The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () and Yalu Zangbu River () is a river that flows through the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and Arunachal Pradesh of India. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The u ...

16 times and has 47 tunnels and 121 bridges. It is part of the under-construction

Sichuan–Tibet railway The Sichuan–Tibet railway, Sichuan–Xizang railway or Chuanzang railway () is a partially opened high-elevation and the National first-class trunk railway in China that will connect Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, and Lhasa, the cap ...

that will connect Lhasa and

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

, capital of the neighboring

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province. Lhasa-Nyingchi railway is the first fully-electrified railway in Tibet region. The rolling stock is the

China Railway CR200J The CR200J Fuxing (train), Fuxing ( zh, s=复兴号, p=Fùxīng Hào) is a Chinese trainset consisting of a power car paired with unpowered passenger cars operated by China Railway. It is the slowest member of the Fuxing series, and only member o ...

Fuxing series powered by both electronic motors and internal combustion engines, marking the complete coverage of Fuxing series to all provincial-level regions in China. The newly opened train route provides Nyingchi with access to railway services for the first time in history.

History

On 4 November 2014, the

National Development and Reform Commission The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is the third-ranked executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, which functions as a macroeconomic management agency. Established as the State Planning C ...

approved the construction of Lhasa–Nyingchi railway. The Sangzhuling Tunnel () started engineering works on 19 December 2014. Construction began on 28 June 2015, and the track-laying work was completed by the end of 2020. On 25 June 2021, the railway began operation, with the first train leaving Lhasa for Nyingchi at 10.30 am. Compared with roads, the railway reduces the travel time from Lhasa to Nyingchi from 5 hours to 3.5 hours, and cuts the travel time from Shannan to Nyingchi from 6 hours to more than 2 hours.

Rolling stock

160 km/h services use the

trainsets. CR200J Plateau variant will serve the railway, and it's a type of bi-mode locomotive specifically designed for plateau operations. 31 sets of train in 12 car configuration is in service. A combination of diffusion and distributed oxygen systems are installed to help alleviate

altitude sickness Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People's bodies can respond to high altitude in different wa ...

for passengers on the trip.

Stations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway Railway lines in China Rail transport in Tibet Railway lines opened in 2021

Construction

History

Rolling stock

Stations

See also

References