The Wenzhou–Fuzhou railway, also known as the Wenfu railway, () is a dual-track, electrified, high-speed rail line running between

Wenzhou Wenzhou; Chinese postal romanization, historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang, bordering Lishui, Zhejiang, Lishui to the west, Taizhou, Zheji ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

and

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

, the capital of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

. The line has a total length of and forms part of the Hangzhou–Fuzhou–Shenzhen passenger-dedicated railway. Construction began in August 2005, and the line opened to freight traffic on July 1, 2009. Passenger service began on September 28, 2009. Trains running on the line reach top speeds of 250 kilometres per hour, and the shortest trip between Wenzhou and Fuzhou takes 1.5 hours."China to open Wenzhou-Fuzhou railroad at mid-year" ''People's Daily''
2009-03-09 The line required investment of ¥12.66 billion. To improve connections between Fuzhou and Zhejiang, the government is proposing to build a faster parallel passenger dedicated line called the Wenzhou–Fuzhou high-speed railway.

Route

The Wenzhou–Fuzhou railway follows the rugged but prosperous coast of southern Zhejiang and northern

with in the former and in the latter. Bridges and tunnels account for over 78% of the line's total length. Major cities along route include Rui'an, Cangnan, Fuding, Ningde, Luoyuan and Lianjiang.

History

The Wenzhou–Fuzhou railway is the first railway to connect the two neighboring provinces. Most high-speed rail lines in China follow the routes of older conventional railroads, but there were no railways on the southeast coast prior to the building of high-speed rail. Historically, the southeast coastal region relied on maritime transportation, and rugged terrain made railway construction more expensive. In the first half of the 20th century, warfare and political instability delayed railway construction. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, the southeast coast faced the threat of invasion from Republic of China on Taiwan and all railways were built inland. Only when political tensions across the Taiwan Strait eased in the late 1990s did planning of the Wenzhou–Fuzhou railway take place. In October 2002, the project was initially approved by 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 ...

as a single-track railway at the standard. The project was then upgraded to a double-track standard and received State Council approval in 2004. Construction on an experimental basis began in December 2004 and on a full-scale in August 2005. Track-laying was completed in April 2009. Freight and passenger service began, respectively on July 1 and September 28, 2009.

Rail connections

: Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou railway, Jinhua–Wenzhou railway *

: Fuzhou–Xiamen railway, Nanping–Fuzhou railway, Xiangtang–Putian railway * Ningde: Quzhou–Ningde railway

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenzhou-Fuzhou Railway Railway lines in China Rail transport in Zhejiang Rail transport in Fujian

Route

History

Rail connections

See also

References