Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway

Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway
CRH6A at Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway in Guangzhou in March 2018
Overview
Native name	广深铁路 广深线
Type	High-speed rail Higher-speed rail Heavy rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Guangzhou Dongguan Shenzhen
Termini	Guangzhou Shenzhen
Stations	22
Operation
Opened	8 October 1911
Owner	China Railway
Operator(s)	China Railway High-speed
Technical
Line length	147 km (91.342 mi)
Number of tracks	4
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line 25 kV AC 50 Hz
Operating speed	200 km/h (120 mph) (tracks 1 and 2) 140 km/h (87 mph) (tracks 3 and 4)

Guangshen Railway
Guangshen Railway Company, the operator of Guangshen Railway
Overview
Type	CRH1A EMU (Guangshen intercity train)
Line number	4
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	Catenary (25 kV AC 50 Hz AC)
Route map Jingguang railway, Guangmao railway  Guangzhou0 km Yunlu4 km Guangzhou East8 km Shipai12 km Jishan20 km Xiayuan27 km Nangang32 km Xintang39 km Shapu45 km Xiancun51 km Shitan60 km Honghai64 km Shilong69 km Dongguan72 km Chashan75 km Nanshe78 km Hengli84 km Changping90 km Dongguan East Jingjiu railway  Zhangmutou103 km Tangtouxia114 km Shigu119 km Pinghu127 km Pinghu South Pingyan railway to Yantian District in Shenzhen  Pingnan railway to Shenzhen West  Shenzhen East139 km Sungang144 km Shenzhen147 km Lo Wu Bridge, the border between HKSAR & Shenzhen East Rail Line of MTR

Guangshen railway or Guangzhou–Shenzhen railway (Chinese: 广深铁路 or 广深线), also known as the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton railway (廣九鐵路華段) in 1911–1949, is a railway in Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China, between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is operated by Guangshen Railway Co., Ltd., a publicly traded company.

With a length of 147 kilometres, it was the first railway in the People's Republic of China to reach the speed of 220 km/h in some sections, though it is limited to about 180 km/h during commercial operation. Now it has four tracks between Guangzhou East and Shenzhen railway station. Line 1 and 2 are up-direction and down-direction 200-km/h (currently restricted to 180 km/h in operation) passenger lines for CRH EMU respectively, and Line 3 and 4 are up-direction and down-direction 160-km/h (currently restricted to 140 km/h in operation) mixed passenger and freight line respectively. In order to reduce the interference to passenger trains in the daytime from lower-speed freight trains, most freight trains will be scheduled to run at night.

Guangshen railway connects with several other important railways to different directions. It links Jingguang railway and Guangmao railway in Guangzhou, Jingjiu railway in Dongguan (with which shares two regular speed track), and the East Rail Line to Hong Kong at the southern end of the railway. Besides, there are some branch lines along Guangshen Railway, such as Pingyan railway to Yantian Port, Pingnan railway to Shenzhen West railway station and also the line to Huangbu Port.

Cross-border services from Hong Kong to Dongguan (Changping), Guangzhou East, Foshan and Zhaoqing, as well as to Beijing West and Shanghai use its route.

History

The idea of constructing a railway linking Canton (now Guangzhou) and Kowloon in Hong Kong, a British crown colony germinated in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1899, Britain and the Qing government agreed to construct the Kowloon–Canton railway (KCR, also known as Canton-Kowloon Railway), but Britain postponed the construction as Britain was busy at the Second Boer War in Africa. In 1907, Qing government and Britain formally signed an agreement in Peking on issuing a £100-million bond as part of loan for the construction of the Chinese section of the Kowloon–Canton railway. In July 1907, construction of the British Section of the KCR began. The construction of Chinese section was delayed and only started in 1909. Under the loan contract, China needed to employ the British engineers for the construction of Chinese section, but China still employed famous Chinese railway engineers, Zhan Tianyou, as a consultant. On 8 October 1911, the Chinese section of KCR with total length of 142.77 km (88.71 mi)was opened.^[1] The northern end of railway at that time was located in Dashatou (大沙頭), Guangzhou, where was demolished in 1951. The through train service between Kowloon and Guangzhou also started to operate at the same time.

After the establishment of People's Republic of China in October 1949, the 'Chinese section of the Canton–Kowloon railway' was renamed 'Guangshen railway', and repair the railroad damaged during the war. In 1967, railway department carried out a comprehensive maintenance on Guangshen railway to improve the transport capacity. From 1980s, since the economic reform policy of China, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established. The rapid economic development in the Pearl River Delta region brought large amount of importing goods and passengers to the railway. Therefore, the second line of Guangshen Railway was constructed during 1984–1987 in order to meet the huge demand. Simultaneously Guangshen Railway Company (the predecessor of Guangshen Railway Company), which was directly subordinated to the Guangzhou Railway Bureau (now Guangzhou Railway Group), was established. This company was in charge of the construction works and operational management of Guangshen Railway. In 1987, Guangshen railway became the first double-track railway in Guangdong province.

Logo of the Guangshen Railway Company (in Shenzhen East railway station)

Image gallery

• 
  Bond agreement signed in 1907
• 
  Foundation ceremony of the Chinese Section of KCR in 1909. Group photo of both Chinese and British officials.

Indeed, Guangshen railway is the first place in China to carry out successfully speed-up on the existing railroad. At the beginning of the 1990s, Guangzhou Railway Bureau and the Ministry of Railways carried out the pre-feasibility research about raising the maximum speed of passenger trains to 160 km/h. At 28 December 1991, the construction of the third line of Guangshen railway, and the speed-up improvement works of original double tracks started. In October 1994, the maximum speed of a train reached 174 km/h during the test. At 22 December 1994, the first sub-high speed (160 km/h) passenger train in China started commercial operation between Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Fourth track of Guangshen railway under construction

In 1998, the electrification of two sub-high speed lines of Guangshen railway was finished. After the improvement the 200 km/h high speed trains are allowed to run on the existing subhigh speed railroad. A Swedish-built X 2000 tilting train called 'Xinshisu' began to serve intercity train service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as the through train to Hong Kong. The train are 165m long, consisting of a power car, five passenger cars, and a trailing car. The non-power cars can have a pitch of up to 8 degrees.They are noted for being very quiet (less than 65 dBA) even at 200 km/h.

Construction of the fourth track was commenced at 31 December 2005, and was finished at 18 April 2007 in time for the Sixth Speed-Up Campaign. Since then Guangshen railway has been the first four-track railway in mainland China and it allows passenger trains and freight trains to run on separate lines.

Guangshen intercity trains

Tickets of intercity trains

CRH1A running on Guangshen railway

As of 2007, intercity train service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen uses 8-car CRH1A highspeed EMU. There are 100 pairs of trains operated daily, in which 98 pairs will stop for 1.5 minutes at three stations: Zhangmutou, Dongguan and Shilong. On the ‘As-frequent-as-buses’ basis, one pair of trains is dispatched every 5 minutes on average during peak hours. The fastest journey time is 52 minutes between Guangzhou East and Shenzhen for D7002 and D7008 with no stop.

Stations

Stations with services

Most of the stations on the line are now abandoned for passenger service. Currently, the only stations on the line offering passengers service are, in order:

Station №	Station Name	Chinese	Distance km		PRD MIR (CR C-train) transfers/connections	Metro transfers/connections	Location
GZQ	Guangzhou	广州	0	0	GFZ *  GQ	2   5	Yuexiu	Guangzhou
GGQ	Guangzhou East Guangzhoudong	广州东	8	8	SGS *	1   3	Tianhe
RTQ	Dongguan	东莞	64	72		2	Shilong	Dongguan
DAQ	Changping	常平	18	90			Changping
ZOQ	Zhangmutou	樟木头	13	103			Zhangmutou
PHQ	Pinghu	平湖	24	127			Longgang	Shenzhen
BJQ	Shenzhen East Shenzhendong	深圳东	12	139		3   5
SZQ	Shenzhen	深圳	8	147		1  East Rail	Luohu

All existing stations

Existing stations
		Station Name English	Station Name Chinese	Total Distance	Transfer	Location	Grade	Notes
		Tangxi (Temporary)	棠溪			Baiyun, Guangzhou	2
●	●	Guangzhou	广州	0	2  5	Yuexiu, Guangzhou	T [note 1]	The departure station for minor Guangzhou - Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	｜	Yunlu	云麓	4			4	Not for passenger service. Decommissioned in 2009.
●	●	Guangzhou East	广州东	8	1  3	Tianhe, Guangzhou	1	The stop and departure station for all Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	●	Shipai	石牌	14			4	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Huangpu	黄埔	18			2	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Jiuyunhui	九运会					Decommissioned in 2002.
｜	●	Jishan	吉山	20			3	Not for passenger service.
●	●	Xiayuan	下元	27		Huangpu, Guangzhou	3	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Nangang	南岗	32			4	Decommissioned in 2009.
｜	●	Xintang	新塘	39		Zengcheng, Guangzhou	4	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Shapu	沙浦	45			5	Decommissioned in 2007.
｜	｜	Tangmei	塘美				4	Decommissioned in 2007.
●	●	Xiancun	仙村	51			4	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Shitan	石滩	60			4	Decommissioned in 2009.
｜	｜	Honghai	红海	64			4	Not for passenger service. Decommissioned in 2006.
｜	｜	Shilong	石龙	69		Shilong, Dongguan	3	Decommissioned in 2014.
●	●	Dongguan	东莞	72	2		2	Stopping station for all Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	●	Chashan	茶山	75		Chashan, Dongguan	4	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Nanshe	南社	78			4	Decommissioned in 2007.
｜	｜	Hengli	横沥	84		Hengli, Dongguan	4	Decommissioned in 2009.
●	●	Changping	常平	90		Changping, Dongguan	2	Stopping station for all Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	｜	Tutang	土塘	94			5	Decommissioned
●	●	Zhangmutou	樟木头	103		Zhangmutou, Dongguan	3	Stopping station for all Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	｜	Lincun	林村			Tangxia, Dongguan	4	Decommissioned in 2010.
●	●	Tangtouxia	塘头厦	114			4	Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Shigu	石鼓	119			4	Decommissioned in 2007.
｜	｜	Tiantangwei	天堂围	122		Fenggang, Dongguan	4	Decommissioned in 2007.
●	●	Pinghu	平湖	127		Longgang, Shenzhen	4	Stopping station for some Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
｜	●	Pinghu South	平湖南	131				Not for passenger service.
｜	｜	Lilang	李朗				4	Decommissioned in 2007.
●	●	Shenzhen East	深圳东	139	3  5		3	Departure station for some non-high-speed trains. Intercity trains do not stop here.
●	●	Sungang	笋岗	144		Luohu, Shenzhen	1	Not for passenger service.
●	●	Shenzhen	深圳	147	1		1	The departure station for all Guangzhou–Shenzhen intercity trains (CRH)
↓ Through-service to/from Hung Hom (Kowloon) via East Rail Line ↓

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guangshen Railway.

• China Railway
• List of railways in China
• Rail transport in the People's Republic of China
• Kowloon–Canton railway
• Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link

References

External links

• Guangshen Railway (official site)
• MTR Intercity Passenger Services