Type Heavy rail Status In operation Operator(s) China Railways Locale China | System China Railways Opened 1996 Line length 2,311 km (1,436 mi) | |
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Terminis Hung Hom Station, Beijing West Railway Station | ||
The Beijing-Jiujiang-Kowloon Railway, also known as the Jingjiu Railway (simplified Chinese: 京九铁路 or 京九线; traditional Chinese: 京九鐵路 or 京九線; pinyin: Jīngjiŭ tiĕlù or Jīngjiŭ Xiàn) is a railway in the China connecting Beijing West Station in Beijing to Shenzhen Station in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. It then follows the rail-link between Shenzhen to the special administrative region of Hong Kong to Hung Hom Station (Kowloon Station) in Kowloon.
History
It is a dual-track railway. Construction began in February 1993. It was opened in 1996, connecting Beijing and Shenzhen (and thereupon with Kowloon through the KCR East Rail) through Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong, with a length of 2,397 kilometres. It has 790 bridges and 160 tunnels. The Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge, at a length of 7,679 metres, is the longest across the Yangtze River. Located between Jinghu Railway (Beijing-Shanghai) and Jingguang Railway (Beijing-Guangzhou), it was built to alleviate the congested Jingguang Railway, and to foster development in the areas to the east of Jingguang Railway.
The idea had been proposed for a long time, and some of the sections, such as the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge, were built before construction of the whole line officially began. Some were converted from existing sections, such as between Jiujiang and Nanchang, and Fouyang and Shangqiu.
It multiplexes with the Guangmeishan Railway (Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway) between Longchuan and Dongguan. It joins the Guangshen Railway (Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, formerly the Chinese Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway) at Dongguan, and follows the same route. Within Hong Kong, it shares the same pair of tracks with the East Rail Line (formerly British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway).
Beijing-Kowloon Through Train services are currently provided on the Jingguang Railway and Guangshen Railway, instead of the Jingjiu Railway, probably because the former has been upgraded for high-speed services, whereas the latter has not. Passengers are required to go through customs and immigration checks for the cross-border service.