ShanghaiâÂÂWuhanâÂÂChengdu passenger-dedicated line or Huhanrong PDL (), is a fully completed rail 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 (, ), Wuhan (, ), and Chengdu (, ), three major cities along the line.
The Huhanrong PDL is one of the four eastâÂÂwest 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).
The completed line, as designed during the 4+4 national high speed railway grid plan mostly became a higher-speed railway with trains running at a maximum speed of between Nanjing and Chongqing. The Nanjing and Chongqing sections were even built to National Class I railway standards which can accommodate freight, some sections are planned and built to support double-stack rail transport. In addition the Yichang to Nanjing section has design reservations for at least 250 kilometers per hour operations. The HefeiâÂÂWuhan section even had reservations for 300 kilometers per hour operations. Speeds has been increased on the line to 250km/h between Wuhan and Nanjing on July 1, 2018.
To manage the increasing passenger traffic a newer Yangtze River corridor announced in the updated 8+8 National high speed railway grid plan is now under construction. This newer updated line runs roughly parallel to the existing Huhanrong PDL with most sections designed for a faster standard. Huhanrong PDL will become the ShanghaiâÂÂWuhanâÂÂChengdu railway and begin to handle more freight and local passenger services.
All sections are now operational.
<span style="background:#bcffc5;">Operational lines are marked with green background</span>.
From Shanghai to Nanjing, the line uses the BeijingâÂÂShanghai high-speed railway and the ShanghaiâÂÂNanjing intercity railway both lines have the designed speed of .
From Nanjing to Hefei, the line is called the HefeiâÂÂNanjing railway. The HefeiâÂÂNanjing Railway is shared with the NanjingâÂÂXi'an railway. It has a designed speed of . At Hefei, a connection is available to the HefeiâÂÂBengbu high-speed railway, which is a branch line of the BeijingâÂÂShanghai high-speed railway, although both Shanghai-Chengdu Main Line and Hefei-Bengbu branch has now mostly used Hefei South Railway Station instead.
From Hefei to Wuhan, the line is called the HefeiâÂÂWuhan railway, with a designed speed of . At Wuhan, a connection is available to the BeijingâÂÂGuangzhouâÂÂShenzhenâÂÂHong 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.
From Wuhan to Yichang, the line is called the WuhanâÂÂYichang railway.
The YichangâÂÂWanzhou railway connects the cities of Yichang, Lichuan, and Wanzhou. The ShanghaiâÂÂWuhanâÂÂChengdu passenger-dedicated line only uses the Yichang to Lichuan portion of the YichangâÂÂWanzhou 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 , which is the lowest in China's high-speed network.
At Lichuan, the ChongqingâÂÂLichuan railway connects it with the city of Chongqing.
The SuiningâÂÂChongqing railway connects the cities of Chongqing and Suining. Its designed operating speed is .
The SuiningâÂÂChengdu railway connects the cities of Suining and Chengdu. Its designed operating speed is . Until 2009, this line was considered to form part of the DazhouâÂÂChengdu railway.
The newly constructed ChengduâÂÂChongqing intercity railway links Chengdu and Chongqing directly using a southern route (via Neijiang). This line is operated at which is much faster than the above two lines.
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 ShanghaiâÂÂNanjing 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).