Jinghu railway

The Jinghu railway is a train line running between Beijing and Shanghai in China through Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui Jiangsu. It has a total length of 1462 kilometres. In Chinese, "Jing" denotes "the capital" and "Hu" stands for Shanghai.

History

The Jinghu railway is composed of three sections. These three sections are ones of the earliest railways in China, built before 1910. The first section is from Beijing to Tianjin, sharing the same route with the Jingha railway. This section used to be part of .

The second section is from Tianjin to Pukou and used to be called as Tianjin-Pukou Railway. Between Pukou and Nanjing the railway crosses Yangtze River. Trains were ferried across the river before the completion of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in 1968.

The third section is from Nanjing to Shanghai. This section is called Huning railway. During 1927-1949, however, when China's capital was Nanjing, this section alone was called Jinghu railway.

After the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge completed in 1968, these three sections are linked together and renamed as a whole as Jinghu railway.

Current status

The Railway line is the principal line between Beijing and Shanghai and one of the busiest railway in China. It has dual tracks between Tianjin and Shanghai, three tracks between Beijing and Tianjin and the full length of the railway has been electrified. Passenger rail service now offers non-stop overnight service on Z1 and Z21 trains. Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway is expected to be constructed parallel to it to divert the passenger traffic from the overcrowded Jinghu railway.