Qingzang Railway
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A 1,080-kilometre (670-mile) section of the Qinghai-Tibet railway is currently under construction from Golmud to Lhasa. It includes the now completed 3,345-metre Yangbajain No. 1 tunnel which is 4,264 metres above sea level and located 80 km NW of the regional capital Lhasa. The 815-kilometre section from Xining to Golmud in Qinghai opened to traffic in 1984. This railway will be the first railway that connects central China and Tibet, which due to its altitude is the last province in China that has no railways.
More than 960 kilometers, or over four-fifths of the railway, will be built at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and over half of it will be laid on frozen earth.
The railway's highest point, the Tanggula Mountain Pass, is 5,072 meters above sea level.
Thirty railway stations are to be built, among them Tanggula Mountain station, which at 4,500 m will be one of the highest-altitude railway stations in the world (after Cóndor station, at 4,786 m, on the Rio Mulatos-Potosí line, Bolivia, and La Galera at 4,781 m in Peru).
Rail-laying in Tibet was launched in both directions, towards Tanggula Mountain and Lhasa, from Anduo Railway Station on 22 June 2004. When the railway construction that started on 29 June 2001 is complete (expected in 2005; signalling and track testing require another 6 to 12 months), it will be possible to travel from Lhasa to Beijing in 48 hours. The railway will later be extended to Shigatse to the west and Nyingchi (Linzhi) to the east.
Bombardier Transportation are to provide 361 high-altitude passenger carriages with special enriched-oxygen and UV-protection systems, to be delivered between December 2005 and May 2006. Of these, 53 will be luxury sleeper carriages for tourist service. [1] (http://www.bombardier.com/en/0_0/pressleft.jsp?group=0_0&lan=en&action=view&mode=search&year=null&id=2748&sCateg=1_0) Bombardier have faced criticism from the media and their own shareholders for their involvement in the project.
The construction of the railway is one of the government's attempts to develop the western provinces of China, which are much less developed than eastern China.
See also
External links
- Environmental Protection Along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/ptr/Qingzang-Railway-prt.htm), US Embassy reportde:Lhasa-Bahn