Authorities in China’s Yangtze River Delta region are planning to invest $19.4bn in rail projects this year, an increase of 12% on 2023. Among the 32 schemes that will get underway is Shanghai East railway station, which is set to become the city’s second-largest transport hub after Shanghai Hongqiao station.
News of the plans was given by China Railway Shanghai Group to the Shanghai Observer on Sunday, and later reported in the English language newspaper China Daily.
The Shanghai East station, which broke ground in 2019 and is due to open in 2027, is located 5km from Pudong International Airport. It will form an intermodal transport hub on the same model as Hongqiao railway station and Hongqiao airport, to which it will be connected.
The station will combine aviation, high-speed intercity railway, urban railway, and metro in one square kilometre.
The State Council, China’s top administrative body, approved the idea for the hub, as well as a surrounding “international business cooperation zone”. It commented that one aim of the scheme was to improve communications with domestic and international markets.
Shangahi’s municipal government said the project would assist Pudong New Area’s goal of “playing a leading role in China’s journey to build a modern socialist country, and accelerate Shanghai’s efforts to forge a socialist modern international metropolis with global influence”.
China Daily notes that the Yangtze Delta already has a highly developed high-speed railway network, with more than 7,100km of track. This will increase 30% to 9,200km by the end of the year. The aim is to shrink the time-map of the region so that all journeys take less than three hours.
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