Major Chinese train upgrade 4/18/07
 

I know many of you have researched on Chinese trains for summer travel in the past months. Just want to let you know the schedule was heavily revised on 4/18/07. There are new routes, faster trains, new train sets, etc.

I'm still going through some of the schedule, but want to point out some of the more major changes:

- There's a new class of higher-speed trains, starting with the letter "D" for "Dongchezu", which refers to the Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trainsets. They can go up to 200km/h (125MPH) on existing tracks. Locally built using various foreign technology. The trainsets are called CRH for Chinese Railway High-speed.

Check the schedules, I see a lot of them between Beijing and Shenyang in the Northeast (700km/h, 4 hours; compared to 6+ hours before).

But most importantly for tourists, they're on the Shanghai - Suzhou - Nanjing route. Suzhou (84km) is now only 31 minutes from Shanghai and Nanjing (301km) about 2 hours. Very frequent trains, so that make daytrips from Shanghai to Suzhou even more convenient.

Similarly, "D" trains between Shanghai and Hangzhou takes about 1:24 compared to 2+ hours before. Also extremely frequent service.

Another route is between Guangzhou and Shenzhen (on the Hong Kong border), and Hong Kong itself. Track work is being done to make it a four-track route for even faster service.

It's also used on ONE fast train between Beijing and Shanghai, making the 1,400 km trip in 9:59. Compared to 11.5 hours for the overnight "Z" trains, which cut their time from 12 hours.

- Significant upgrade and electrification was done to the major E-W route between Shanghai and Hunan. That cuts travel time for about 4 hours on many trains - like between Shanghai and Hong Kong (20 vs 24 hours).

Wuhan to Shanghai is now about 15 hours, making it feasible for a connection from a Yangtze Cruise from Chongqing.

- A brand new railroad opened between Hunan and Chongqing. Guangzhou to Chengdu is now 30 hours, about 10 hours faster. But it probably isn't much help for most foreign tourists.

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Anyways, I think www.chinahighlights.com hasn't updated its interactive timetable in English yet. If you need anything right now, let me know and I can search the Chinese updated timetables for you.

Rkkwan, this is outstanding news! Thanks so much.

Could you look up the times for Shanghai to Suzhou in the morning and Suzhou to Shanghai in the late afternoon, early evening?

Also, morning for Shanghai to Hangzhou and late afternoon, early evening for Hangzhou back to Shanghai?

Do you have the link in Chinese?

Thanks again!

I use this site:

oklx.com/cn/train/search_station.aspx

Between Shanghai and Suzhou, you have about 12 "D" trains a day each way, and you still get another 30 or so fast T/K/N trains. All takes an hour or less. So, you basically don't have to worry about schedule. There are trains literally every few minutes.

Between Shanghai and Hangzhou, I counted at least 20 "D" trains each way, plus another 20-30 T/K/N. Though on this longer route, the D trains are significantly faster.

Rkkwan,
Thanks so much. Are there any trains in the late afternoon/early evening or the morning from Suzhou to Hangzhou? Thanks!

Before this upgrade, most people take a bus between Suzhou and Hangzhou, as trains have to go through Shanghai and there are few direct ones. Also take pretty long.

But now, it's only 2 hours between the two on the "D" trains. For example D475 departs Suzhou at 4:21pm and arrives Hangzhou 6:21pm. The train goes through Shanghai but doesn't stop there.

That's great! Are there any other trains like that in the morning, in the 8-11 AM range? We are now thinking we might spend the night in Suzhou. Also, are there any around 6 PM or 7 PM?

Thanks!

There are only three direct "D" trains from Suzhou to Hangzhou each day 8:54am, 4:21pm, and 8:52pm. But there are other slower T/K/N trains that take a bit longer - 3 to 4 hours.

Or you can just switch at Shanghai. Like I said earlier, extremely frequent trains between Suzhou and Shanghai, and between Shanghai and Hangzhou.

There's no rail direct between Suzhou and Hangzhou - they all have to go through Shanghai anyways.

BTW, it's not hard to use that website even if you don't know Chinese. Left column is origin, right column is destination. First choose the province - Jiangsu, then the city Suzhou. Likewise, province Zhejiang and then city Hangzhou. Shanghai is in its own "province" Shanghai. Then click the left hand box in the bottom.

rkkwan - thanks so much for the info and links! Are these new trains mostly in the east? How about Beijing to Xi'an, Xi'an to Chengdu, for instance?

Yes, those new trains are running on mostly flat and straight routes in the east. Out west, there may be slight shorterning of travel time, but otherwise mostly the same (except for trains from the S and E to Chongqing/Chengdu, where they can take that brand new railroad I mentioned).

Beijing to Xian still has that same single Z train per night plus a few other Ts and Ks.

Likewise Chengdu to Xian, a mountainous railroad that was already double-tracked and electrified a few years back.

rkkwan,
How about the trains between Beijing and Tanjing? Thanks for your help.

chertim - You can also use that web link I gave to search. Beijing is in Beijingshi, and Tianjin is in Tianjinshi.

I counted about 18 "D" trains each direction each way, taking about 70 minutes. And many more T/K/N trains that take about 90.

This is another "walk up" route, in my opinion.

And I assume you mean Tianjin, which is about 80 miles SE of Beijing.

Got it! Thanks so much. This is an enormous help. I really appreciate it.

How difficult will it be to get the D tickets? Can we get the tickets right before we leave or should we try to get them earlier?

Thanks!

rkkwan,
Thanks for your help and yes, I did mean Tianjin.

thanks for this info, do you know the days when we can get the hong kong to beijing sleeper , we have to leave hong kong on sunday october 21 to go to beijing ,is the train running in this direction on this day, thanks, fizz

fizz - Please read the my replies to your Beijing train trip thread.