Qingzang railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Qingzang railway, Qinghai–Xizang railway, or Qinghai–Tibet railway (Simplified Chinese: 青藏铁路; Traditional Chinese: 青藏鐵路; pinyin: Qīngzàng Tiělù), is a railway which connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in the People's Republic of China.

The section of the railway between Golmud and Lhasa was inaugurated on 1 July 2006 by president Hu Jintao, when the first two passenger trains departed, "Qing 1" (Q1) from Golmud towards Lhasa, and on the return side "Zang 2" (J2) leaving from Lhasa.^[1] This railway is the first to connect China proper with the Tibet Autonomous Region, which due to its altitude and terrain was the last province-level entity in the People's Republic of China to have rail connections. Unmanned testing of the line and equipment had started on May 1, 2006.^[2] Direct trains run from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xining, and Lanzhou, establishing a straight connection between Lhasa and other major cities in the PRC.^[3]

The line includes the Tanggula Pass, which at 5,072 metres above sea level is the world's highest rail track.

The 1,338 m Fenghuoshan tunnel is the highest rail tunnel in the world. It is 4,905 m above sea level. The 3,345-meter Yangbajing tunnel is the longest tunnel of the line. It is 4,264 m above sea level and located 80 kilometres NW of the regional capital, Lhasa.

Of the Golmud to Lhasa line, more than 960 km, or over 80% of the railway, is built at an altitude of more than 4,000 m, over half of it is laid on permafrost, and 675 bridges on the line, total length 159.88 km.

Contents 1 Stations 2 Trains & Tickets 3 Oxygen supply 4 Construction 5 Engineering challenges 6 Economic impact 7 Environmental impact 8 Criticism 9 Fleet 10 Media 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Stations

Main article: List of stations on Qingzang railway

In the Golmud to Lhasa part of the line, 45 stations are constructed and open for service, 13 stations are planned. ^[4] Of the 45 stations, 38 are unstaffed, and monitored in the control center in Xining.

Xining railway station	Xining railway station	Golmud railway station	Golmud railway station
Tanggula railway station	Tanggula railway station	Nagqu railway station	Nagqu railway station
Damxung railway station	Lhasa railway station

[edit] Trains & Tickets

The trains are specially built for high altitude environment. As of October 2006, the diesel locomotives used on Golmud-Lhasa section are made by GE in Pennsylvania, and the passenger carriages are Chinese-made 25T carriages. Train T27/T28, running between Beijing West and Lhasa, use BSP cars from Bombardier. Passenger cars used on Golmud-Lhasa section are either in deep green/yellow or deep red/yellow in colour. The signs used in the cars are written in three languages: Tibetan, Simplified Chinese, and English.

On 12 October 2005, the 1,142-km Qinghai–Tibet railway to Lhasa was completed. The new section of track opened to regular trial service on July 1, 2006.^[5] During this 1-year trial period, three passenger trains ran from Beijing, Chengdu/Chongqing, and Xining/Lanzhou, numbered T27/T28, T22/T23/T24/T21, T222/T223/T224/T221, N917/N918, K917/K918, respectively. The train from Beijing to Lhasa numbered T27 takes 47 hours & 28 minutes, covering 4,064 km (2,500 miles), departs at 21:30 from Beijing West, and arrives in Lhasa at 20:58 on the third day. The ticket costs CNY¥ 389 for hard seat, CNY¥ 813 for a lower hard sleeper (a lower bunk in a basic sleeping car), or CNY¥ 1,262 for a lower soft sleeper (a bunk in a more luxurious sleeping car). The T28 from Lhasa to Beijing West departs at 08:00 and arrives in Beijing at 08:00 on the third day, takes 48 hours.

On the Qingzang railway in the section from Golmud to Lhasa, apart from hard seat tickets, there is an extra charge for forward-facing seats/berths. Compared with standard pricing for the same class, the soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper tickets will have an added charge of 0.09, 0.10 or 0.16 yuan per kilometre per person respectively.

Trains from Shanghai and Guangzhou will be available since October 1. Train code T262 from Guangzhou depart at 10:29 each two days, and arrive in Lhasa at 19:50 third day, while T264 from Lhasa depart at 08:32 since October 4, and arrive in Guangzhou at 19:37 third day. Train code T164/5 from Shanghai to Lhasa will depart at 16:11 from Shanghai, via Wuxi, Nanjing, Bengbu, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Xining, Golmud, Nagqu, arrive in Lhasa at 19:50 third day. Train code T166/3 from Lhasa to Shanghai will depart at 8:32 and arrive in Shanghai at 13:45 third day.

A Passenger Health Registration Card is required to take the train. The card can be retrieved when purchasing the ticket. Passengers must read the health notice for high-altitude travel and agree the agreement on the card to take the train. On August 28, 2006 a 75 year old Hong Kong man was reported to be the first passenger to die on the train after he suffered heart problems in Lhasa but insisted on travelling to Xining anyway. [3]

The ticket prices for 5-carriage trains in the testing period were as follows: (Unit: Chinese Yuan)

Train	From/To	Kilometres	Hard Seat	Hard Sleeper (lower berth)	Soft Sleeper (lower berth)
T27/28	Beijing west - Lhasa	4064	389	813	1262
T22/23/24/21	Chengdu - Lhasa	3360	331	712	1104
T222/223/224/221	Chongqing - Lhasa	3654	355	754	1168
T164/5	Shanghai - Lhasa
T166/3	Lhasa - Shanghai
T262	Guangzhou - Lhasa
T264	Lhasa - Guangzhou
K917/K918	Lanzhou - Lhasa	2188	242	552	854
N917/N918	Xining - Lhasa	1972	226	523	810

Deluxe Water Closet. T27/T28 from Beijing West provide warm water but the other two trains do not.	Water Closet.	Standing view of a dining car.	Sitting view of a dining car.
On a railway station platform.	Route indicator on the side of a passenger carriage.	Interior of a hard seat (actually, semi-cushion)carriage.	3-language signage on a WC door.
3 diesel locomotives pull each train.	Pulling out from Nagqu railway station.	Information Display indicate current altitude, speed, temperature, station information, etc., in passenger carriages.	Dining car that include bar service.

[edit] Oxygen supply

5 pairs of passenger trains run between Golmud and Lhasa and 1 more pair run between Xining and Golmud as of October 2006. The Golmud-Lhasa sect of line has a capacity of 8 pairs of passenger trains, and the carriages are special built and has oxygen supply for each passenger.

Oxygen supply connector under the seats

The pipe used to plug into the oxygen connector

The oxygen generator controller on the train

[edit] Construction

Since the formation of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in early 1950s, the Chinese central government has dreamed of building a railway connecting Tibet to the rest of China. Engineers were sent to investigate the possibility, but shortage of technology and money prevented the project from starting.

The 815 km section from Xining, Qinghai to Golmud, Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. Construction of the remaining 1,142 km section, from Golmud to Lhasa, could not be started until the recent economic growth of China. This section was formally started on 29 June 2001. Though this section was finished in mid-October 2005, signalling work and track testing took another eight months. The Golmud-Lhasa section was completed in five years at a cost of $3.68 billion.

Rail-laying in Tibet was launched from both directions, towards Tanggula Mountain and Lhasa, from Anduo Railway Station on 22 June 2004. On 24 August 2005, track was laid at the railway's highest point, the Tanggula Pass, which is 5,072 metres (16,640 feet) above sea level.^[6]

44 new railway stations are to be built, among them Tanggula Mountain railway station, which at 5,068 m will be the world's highest (Cóndor station, at 4,786 m, on the Rio Mulatos-Potosí line, Bolivia, and La Galera station at 4,781 m in Peru being the next highest).

Bombardier Transportation provided 361 high-altitude passenger carriages with special enriched-oxygen and UV-protection systems (delivered between December 2005 and May 2006). Of these, 53 are luxury sleeper carriages for tourist service.^[7] Trains travelling in the frozen earth (permafrost) areas attain maximum speeds of 100 km/h. On the non-frozen earth areas, speeds reach 120 km/h.

The construction of the railway was part of the China Western Development strategy, an attempt to develop the western provinces of China, which are much less developed than eastern China. Now that the line is open, it is possible to travel from Beijing to Lhasa in 47.5 hours, and from Shanghai in 52 hours. The railway will later be extended to Zhangmu via Shigatse (日喀则) to the west, and Dali via Nyingchi (林芝) to the east. A further extension is planned to link Shigatse with Yadong near the China-India border ^[8] (Map ^[9]).

[edit] Engineering challenges

There were and are many technical difficulties for such a railway.

About half of the second section was built on barely permanent permafrost. In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws, and the ground becomes muddy. Chinese engineers dealt with this problem by building elevated tracks with foundations sunk deep into the ground, inserting vertical pipes that circulate liquid nitrogen and cold nitrogen gas into the ground, building hollow concrete pipes beneath the tracks to keep the rail bed frozen, and using metal sun shades.^[10] However, global warming may require new methods to be invented in the coming decades to keep this railway operating.

The air in Tibet is much thinner, having 35% to 40% of the oxygen of air at sea level, and therefore special passenger rail cars must be used, and several oxygen factories were built along the railway. At this altitude, ballpoint pens can explode^{[citation needed]} and water in toilets must be heated to prevent freezing. The Chinese government claimed that no construction worker died during the construction due to altitude sickness related diseases. ^[11] The railway passes the Kunlun Mountains, an earthquake zone. A magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck in 2001. Dozens of earthquake monitors have been installed along the railway.

[edit] Economic impact

With limited industrial capacity in Tibet, the Tibetan economy heavily relies on industrial products from more developed parts of China. Transportation of goods in and out of Tibet was mostly through the Qingzang Highway connecting Tibet to the adjacent Qinghai province, which was built in the early 1950s. The length and terrain have limited the capacity of the highway, with less than 1 million tons of goods transported each year. With the construction of the Qingzang railway, the cost of transportion of both passengers and goods should be greatly reduced, allowing for an increase in volume—The cost per ton per kilometer will be reduced from 0.38 RMB to 0.12 RMB. It's projected that, by 2010, the transportation volume in and out of Tibet will reach 2.8 million tons, with over 75% carried by the Qingzang railway^[12]. This is expected to boost and transform the Tibetan economy.

[edit] Environmental impact

The environmental impact of the new railway is an ongoing concern. Certainly the increase in passenger traffic will result in greater tourism and economic activity on the Tibetan Plateau.

Currently, wood is the main fuel source for rural inhabitants in certain regions of Tibet. The damage of eco system caused by cutting trees for fuel needs takes years to recover due to slow growth caused by Tibet's harsh enviroment condition. The railway would make coal, which is not produced in Tibet, affordable as the replacement. This will result in less deforestation. Certainly increase in overall combustion due to increased human activity—in an already thin atmosphere—may affect the long term health of the local population.

Some people have worried that railway passengers will throw trash out of train windows. This is unlikely, as all the passenger cars will be sealed for oxygen enhancement purposes once a train enters Tibet. Trash will be carried back to Golmud by trains to be processed.

The effect of this railway on wild animals such as antelope and plants is currently unknown. Along the whole stretch of the railway, 33 overpasses were constructed specifically to allow continued animal migration, here is the Google Maps satellite image of one of such bridges.

[edit] Criticism

The Chinese leadership has not hidden its political agenda in constructing the railway, which is a pivotal project of China’s ambitious campaign to develop its western regions. Strategically, Western development reflects the Party’s long-standing aim of ensuring the security of its borders and preserving ‘political stability’ through the integration of the region into China and suppression of dissent to Party rule.^{[citation needed]}

Opponents of China's Tibet policies have claimed that the railway was built to strengthen political control over Tibet despite doubts over its economic viability, and that more money has been spent on it than on healthcare and education in the Tibet Autonomous Region over the last five decades. ^[13]

China's economic policies including the railway are further increasing immigration from the rest of China, especially from ethnic Han, reducing the proportion of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and meaning that Tibetans find it increasingly difficult to compete in the job market against Chinese workers with more skills (most of the workers on the railway were Chinese).^[14] Tibetans and activist groups have also expressed concerns that the Chinese government will use the railway to strengthen its military presence in the Tibet Autonomous Region as well as to increase exploitation of Tibet's natural resources and further damage Tibet's environment. As a result, Bombardier Transportation, a Canadian company, has faced international criticism from some pro-independence organizations for its involvement in constructing rail cars for the project.^[15][16][17]

[edit] Fleet

• 361 Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd./Power Corporation of Canada/China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry (Group) Corporation High-Grade Coach - 308 standard cars and 53 special tourist cars
• GE Transportation NJ2 locomotive (possible 78 locomotives were built)
• Qishuyang Locomotive Factory DF8CJ 9000 series locomotive - similar to the Bombardier Transportation-GE Transportation Blue Tiger diesel electric locomotive

[edit] Media

Nanshankou railway station

Nachitai railway station

[edit] See also

• List of railways in China

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Railway map of China
• Environmental Protection Along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, US Embassy report
• The Guardian, 20 September 2005, "The railway across the roof of the world"
• Wired Magazine, July 2006, "Train to the Roof of the World"
• Tibet railway construction
• Tibet railway videos
• Actual Images published in the Wired Magazine
• CCTV report regarding the railroad
• A train travelling near the Tsonag Lake, Cuonahu railway station. [4] [5] [6]