Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu passenger-dedicated line

Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu passenger-dedicated line or Huhanrong PDL, is a fully completed higher-speed railway corridor in China. It is operated by CR Shanghai Group, CR Wuhan Group and CR Chengdu Group. The Chinese name of the railway line, Huhanrong, is a combination of the abbreviations for Shanghai (沪, Hù), Wuhan (汉, Hàn), and Chengdu (蓉, Róng), three major cities along the line.

The Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu railway is one of the four east–west high-speed rail corridors outlined in China's national high-speed rail plan. From east to west, it will connect the major cities of Shanghai (a provincial-level municipality), Nanjing (the capital of Jiangsu), Hefei (the capital of Anhui), Wuhan (the capital of Hubei), Chongqing (a province-level municipality), and Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan). The total population of the four provinces and two municipalities served by this rail line is over 320 million (as of 2008).

Despite its name, the line is actually a medium-speed railway designed to run at a maximum speed of 200 km/h between Nanjing and Chongqing. The newer Yangtze River corridor, running parallel to it at 350 km/h, is being planned to manage the increasing passenger traffic.

Components
All sections are now operational.

Operational lines are marked with green background.

Shanghai–Nanjing
From Shanghai to Nanjing, the line uses the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway and the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway both lines have the designed speed of 350 km/h.

Nanjing to Hefei
From Nanjing to Hefei, the line is called the Hefei–Nanjing railway. The Hefei–Nanjing Railway is shared with the Nanjing–Xi'an railway. It has a designed speed of 250 km/h. At Hefei, a connection is available to the Hefei–Bengbu high-speed railway, which is a branch line of the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway, although both Shanghai-Chengdu Main Line and Hefei-Bengbu branch has now mostly used Hefei South Railway Station instead.

Hefei to Wuhan
From Hefei to Wuhan, the line is called the Hefei–Wuhan railway, with a designed speed of 250 km/h. At Wuhan, a connection is available to the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway, an important north-south railway line from Beijing to Guangzhou and Kowloon, Hong Kong, although Hankou Railway Station instead of Wuhan Station is on the main line.

Wuhan to Yichang
From Wuhan to Yichang, the line is called the Wuhan–Yichang railway.

Yichang–Wanzhou railway
The Yichang–Wanzhou railway connects the cities of Yichang, Lichuan, and Wanzhou. The Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu passenger-dedicated line only uses the Yichang to Lichuan portion of the Yichang–Wanzhou Railway. (The actual splitting point of Yichang-Wanzhou and Chongqing-Lichuan railways is Liangwu railway station)

Due to harsh terrains some part of this section has a maximum speed of 140-160 km/h, which is the lowest in China's high-speed network.

Chongqing–Lichuan railway
At Lichuan, the Chongqing–Lichuan railway connects it with the city of Chongqing.

Suining–Chongqing railway
The Suining–Chongqing railway connects the cities of Chongqing and Suining. Its designed operating speed is 200 km/h.

Suining–Chengdu railway
The Suining–Chengdu railway connects the cities of Suining and Chengdu. Its designed operating speed is 200 km/h. Until 2009, this line was considered to form part of the Dazhou–Chengdu railway.

Chengdu–Chongqing intercity railway
The newly constructed Chengdu–Chongqing intercity railway links Chengdu and Chongqing directly using a southern route (via Neijiang). This line is operated at 300-310 km/h which is much faster than the above two lines.

Routing
While some sections of the line parallels existing conventional railways, others have been constructed on a new separate alignment, done to avoid difficult terrain, provide a more direct route or to serve areas where no rail service existed before. In particular, until the completion of the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway, passenger trains between Shanghai and Nanjing ran on the "conventional", but greatly upgraded, Jinghu railway; conventional railways likewise have long existed along fairly direct routes between Nanjing and Hefei, or between Chongqing and Chengdu.

On the other hand, the Hefei-Wuhan railway, which involved a significant amount of tunneling when passing through the Dabie Mountains, allowed to significantly shorten the railway distance between Nanjing and Wuhan. The Yichang-Lichuan-Wanzhou and Lichuan-Chongqing sections are routed through the mountainous areas of the southwestern Hubei and the eastern section Chongqing Municipality, where no railways or reliable highways previously existed, providing a much more direct rail connection between the Sichuan Basin and Eastern China than previously existing ones (such as the one using the older Xiangyu railway).