According to reports, China will invest approximately US$154.88 billion (RMB 1 trillion) during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021-2025) to expand the railway network in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region. According to the report, the investment will increase the railway network in the region by 4,200 kilometers to 17,000 kilometers.

By 2025, the high-speed network will increase by 3,500 kilometers to 9,500 kilometers, and the total rail transit network will increase to more than 22,000 kilometers. The report added that investment in railway construction in the Yangtze River Delta may reach 11.64 billion U.S. dollars (75 billion yuan) this year.

The Yangtze River Delta region refers to a major metropolitan area centered on Shanghai. It is one of China's largest economic centers. China’s goal is to expand the network to approximately 200,000 kilometers by the end of 2035 to support urbanization and promote local economies. The plan includes increasing the high-speed rail network to 70,000 kilometers. Earlier in 2021, China launched a high-speed maglev train with a maximum speed of 600 km/h.

Keywords: high-speed railway, engineering project

The new train, which is said to be the fastest maglev transportation system in the world, will cover the distance from Shenzhen to Shanghai in South China in about 2.5 hours. This high-speed vehicle can be equipped with a train with 2 to 10 carriages, each carriage can accommodate more than 100 commuters. As of 2020, China's total railway mileage is approximately 141,400 kilometers, of which 36,000 kilometers are high-speed railways.Editor/Baohongying