The "key gap" of the western route, one of the three main corridors of the new western land-sea corridor, is being opened. Five years later, the western route from Chengdu to Beibu Gulf is expected to become the fastest and lowest-cost passage to the sea from the southwest region and even the northwest region to the Beibu Gulf.
On December 21, after seven years of construction, the Xuyong-Bijie section of the Longhuang Railway was officially put into operation, which is a key project for the western route of the new western land-sea corridor. Shortly before that, on December 8, the construction of the Yellow Bucket to Baise Railway on the West Line also started, with a construction period of 5 years. When fully completed, the western route will be shortened by more than 300 kilometers compared with the existing line.
It will be built as the fastest passage to the sea in the southwest.
In August 2019, the state issued the "Master Plan for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor", proposing to build three access roads from Chongqing to the Beibu Gulf Estuary (Beibu Gulf Port and Yangpu Port) via Guiyang and Nanning, from Chongqing to the Beibu Gulf Estuary via Huaihua and Liuzhou, and from Chengdu to the Beibu Gulf Estuary via Luzhou (Yibin) and Baise to the Beibu Gulf Estuary, which together form the main channel of the new western land-sea corridor.
At present, the three channels are all running by using the existing lines, and they are all facing problems such as low line grade and insufficient capacity, and the "stuck neck" effect is becoming more and more obvious. At present, the passage from Chengdu to Beibu Gulf is mainly through the Neijiang to Liupanshui Railway, and the Nankun Railway and then to Beibu Gulf.
The construction of the railway from Xuyong to Bijie and the formation of a faster southbound passage have always been what Sichuan is looking forward to. In the above-mentioned Master Plan, this also became an important part of the main thoroughfare.
In 2021, the state issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the High-quality Construction of the Western New Land-Sea Corridor during the 14th Five-Year Plan", proposing to focus on opening up the missing road sections and optimizing and improving the western route from Chengdu to the Beibu Gulf estuary via Luzhou (Yibin) and Baise. It is clear to speed up the construction of the Xuyong-Bijie section of the Longhuang Railway and the expansion and transformation of the Longchang-Xuyong Railway, and start the construction of the Huangkei-Baise Railway.
Among them, the Xuyong section of the Longhuang Railway and the Huangbai Railway are the key deficiencies in the western route.
The Longhuang Railway connects the Longchang Station of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and the Yellow Bucket Station of the Shanghai-Kunming Railway, and is divided into the Longchang to Xuyong section, the Xuyong to Bijie section, the Bijie to Zhijin section, and the Zhijin to Yellow Bucket section. Before the other sections have been completed, after the opening of the Xubi section, the Longhuang Railway will be fully completed, through the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and the Shanghai-Kunming Railway, Chengdu to the Beibu Gulf can be changed to the Longhuang Railway and the Guizhou-Guizhou Railway, the distance will be shortened.
Not only that, but in the future, the distance of the western route will be much shorter than it is now. On December 8, the construction of the Huangbai Railway started with a construction period of 5 years. This is also the missing section of the Western Route Pathway. After the completion of the Huangbai Railway, the western route of the new western land-sea corridor will be fully completed, which will shorten the distance of the middle line of the new western land-sea corridor by 300 kilometers and 500 kilometers shorter than the eastern route.
The Xubi section of the Longhuang Railway is mainly freight, taking into account passenger transportation, with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour, and after the expansion and transformation of the Longchang-Xuyong Railway, the whole line will be 120 kilometers per hour. The design speed of the Huangbai railway is 160 kilometers per hour, and the total investment of the project is 3385.4 billion yuan, which is also based on goods and taking into account passenger transport. At that time, the distance of the western route will not only be shortened, but also the speed and efficiency will be improved.
The effect of the southwest passage to the sea is revealed.
While the construction of the corridor is accelerating, the logistics and transportation volume of the new western land-sea corridor is growing rapidly. On December 12, Beibu Gulf Port announced that in 2023, the number of trains running in the new western land-sea corridor will exceed 9,000, a year-on-year increase of 8%, and the annual target will be completed 20 days ahead of schedule.
According to official materials, at present, 18 sea-rail intermodal train routes have been opened and operated in the new western land-sea corridor, realizing the normalization of docking with Central Europe and Central Asia trains, with more than 940 types of transportation. In 2017, the first year of operation of the sea-rail intermodal train, there were only 178 trains, but since then there has been a strong growth, reaching the number of trains in 2019 and 2022.
With the development and support of the new land-sea corridor in the west, the logistics of Beibu Gulf ports has also continued to grow. In 2021, Beibu Gulf Port not only ranked among the top 10 ports in China in terms of cargo and container throughput, but also led the country's major coastal ports in terms of growth rate. Even at a time when the growth of the country's foreign trade is sluggish, the Beibu Gulf Port is still bucking the trend.
According to the data of the Ministry of Transport, in January and October this year, the cargo throughput and container throughput of Beibu Gulf Port ranked 10th and 9th in the country, with a growth rate of 196% and 165%, ranking first among the top 10 ports in terms of cargo throughput and container throughput in the country. Among them, the throughput of foreign trade goods increased by 172%, also in the forefront.
Benefiting from the strategy of the new land-sea corridor in the western region, the positioning of the Beibu Gulf Port has been greatly improved. The National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline released in 2021 clearly lists Beibu Gulf Port as an international hub seaport along with 10 ports including Shanghai Port, Shenzhen Port and Guangzhou Port.
In 2023, the strategic goal of Beibu Gulf Port is to "handle 8 million TEUs of containers and exceed 9,000 sea-rail intermodal trains". At present, the target of the number of trains has been achieved. Beibu Gulf Port officially released that in November, the cumulative cargo throughput of Beibu Gulf Port exceeded 282.25 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1123%；Among them, the cumulative completion of containers is 721900,000 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 1576%。