(TibetanReview.net, Nov29’23) – China has opened on Nov 28 the Tibetan region of Ngaba (or Ngawa, Chinese: Aba) for high-speed railway traffic from China as a part of its Sichuan-Qinghai Railway project. This is the first railway on the northwestern Sichuan Plateau, and it ended the history of no railway access in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan province, reported China’s China News Network.
The report said the first train departed from Maoxian (Tibetan: Maowun) Station in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, marking the official opening of the Sichuan Chengdu to Qinghai Xining Railway (referred to as the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway) from Qingbaijiang East to Zhenjiang Pass. operations.
The railway has a total length of approximately 836 kilometres and a design speed of 200 kilometres per hour. With this, the prefecture entered the “motor train era”, the report said.
The Sichuan-Qinghai Railway is being constructed in sections. The section from Chengdu east to Qingbaijiang East and the section from Haixi (Tibetan: Tsonub, in Qinghai province) to Xining are co-aligned with the Xi’an to Chengdu High-speed Railway and the Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-speed Railway respectively and have been put into operation; the section from Zhenjiangguan to Haixi East is under construction, the report said.
The section from Qingbaijiang east to Zhenjiangguan of the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway is located in the alpine valley area where the Chengdu Plain transitions to the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It climbs nearly 2,000 metres, passes through many mountain ranges such as Longmen Mountain and Minshan, and crosses the Fujiang, Minjiang and Jialing rivers. The geological conditions are complex, known as the “super difficult railway under construction”, the report noted.
The world-famous Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area is located along the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway and the Huanglong Jiuzhai Station is expected to open to traffic next year, the report said.
“With the opening of the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway, tourism accessibility will improve. We are expected to exceed the 50 million reception mark throughout the year and become a record high,” Chen Shunqing, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of Aba Prefecture Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of Sichuan Province, has said.
The report made it a point to say there were many Tibetan train staff in the first crew team of the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway.