Xicheng and Chenggui high-speed railways have a speed of 250 kilometers per hour: Whether it can speed up has become the focus of attention

Have you ever had such doubts when taking the high-speed rail? It is obviously two trunk lines connecting big cities, but when you run, you always feel "not working hard".

The Xicheng High-speed Railway is 658 kilometers and the Chengdu-Guizhou High-speed Railway is 650 kilometers, both golden lines connecting cities with tens of millions of cities. But now the speed is stuck at 250 kilometers per hour, which is much slower than the beginning of the design. Someone has calculated that because of this, the space-time value of the two lines has shrunk by nearly 30%.

At that time in 2011, the design plan of the Xicheng High-speed Railway was adjusted. For lines that could have run faster, the minimum curve radius has been reduced from 7,000 meters, and the line spacing has also changed from 5 meters to 4.6 meters. The change was made at that time to save 2 billion. This money sounds a lot, but it actually only accounts for 3% of the total investment. But at the cost, the speed has dropped by nearly 30%.

Have you ever had such doubts when taking the high-speed rail? It is obviously two trunk lines connecting big cities, but when you run, you always feel "not working hard".

The Xicheng High-speed Railway is 658 kilometers and the Chengdu-Guizhou High-speed Railway is 650 kilometers, both golden lines connecting cities with tens of millions of cities. But now the speed is stuck at 250 kilometers per hour, which is much slower than the beginning of the design. Someone has calculated that because of this, the space-time value of the two lines has shrunk by nearly 30%.

At that time in 2011, the design plan of the Xicheng High-speed Railway was adjusted. For lines that could have run faster, the minimum curve radius has been reduced from 7,000 meters, and the line spacing has also changed from 5 meters to 4.6 meters. The change was made at that time to save 2 billion. This money sounds a lot, but it actually only accounts for 3% of the total investment. But at the cost, the speed has dropped by nearly 30%.

The Chengdu-Guizhou High-speed Railway is even more tortuous, and due to the adjustment of standards, we directly stopped work and waited for a while. Finally, the curve radius shrinks to within 4,500 meters, and the speed naturally cannot be increased.

The slope of the Xicheng High-speed Railway crosses the Qinling Mountains is too steep, and the CRH3A EMU we used at the beginning is simply unbearable, so we had to change the bottom of the car. What's even more troublesome is that the intercity railway from Chengdu to Mianyang to Leshan shares tracks with the Xicheng High-speed Railway, but its ballastless track can only support a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to putting a tight hoop on the entire line.

The research budget for Chengdu-Guizhou High-speed Railway is 1.265 million yuan, while Xicheng is 905,000 yuan, which is not much, but it can be seen that you really have to try your best to solve the problem. The goal is very clear. First, argue the necessity, then see if it can be done technically, and finally come up with a specific plan.

The biggest hurdle is the line spacing. Now it is 4.6 meters, and it takes 4.8 meters to run 350 kilometers. But I heard that orbital dynamic compensation technology may solve this problem. Didn’t you try to run 400 kilometers on the Wuyi High-speed Railway, which exceeded the original design standards? This shows that technology has been improving.

In terms of routes, there are many curves in the Qinling Mountains, either partially straighten or tilt-able EMUs, which makes it more stable when passing corners. If the line spacing is not enough, either change to the contact network column or upgrade the control system.

The Cheng Mianle section also needs to be moved, and you can’t just think it’s useless to change it alone. The three lines are linked to the transformation, and the effect may be completely different. Think about it, if you can get to Mianyang from Leshan in one hour, how much will it drive the economy along the route?

The transformation cost is not low, and it may cost more than 100 million per kilometer. But the profit is also obvious, the freight capacity can be increased by 20%, and it can also be better connected with trunk lines such as Zheng Yu and Baocheng, releasing the potential of the entire road network.

These two lines can speed up and cooperate with other projects in the 15th Five-Year Plan, such as the Chengdu-Golmud railway and the Luzhou-Zunyi high-speed railway network, forming a western high-speed railway network. The Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle is so important, it can't always be the "lowland" of high-speed rail speed, right?

For ordinary people, the most direct thing is to travel more conveniently. It now takes more than 3 hours to get from Xi'an, Guiyang to Chengdu, and it is expected to shrink to 2.5 hours after speeding up.

Tourism can also be more popular. The beautiful scenery of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, the sea of stones that are prosperous, prestigious, red attractions, and the natural scenery of Zhenxiong can form a golden tourism belt.

It’s not that you can just mention it. The Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway can run 380 kilometers because it has a good foundation. There must be a limit on the transformation of Xicheng and Chenggui routes that are "innately deficient". The preliminary research costs millions. If you really want to make a comprehensive transformation, you may get tens of billions. Where does the money come from is a big question.

In order to save money, the standards were lowered ten years ago, and ten years later, they spent their energy to make up for the lessons. This is actually a microcosm of China's high-speed rail development - from pursuing scale to focusing on quality.

After all, speeding up is not just a technical issue, but also a response to the expectations of the people, so that the results of development can benefit more people more equitably.