The railway links five major economic circles and zones, and includes the 28 cities along the way in an eight-hour economic circle. Industry insiders forecast that the 28 cities will witness annual additional GDP growth of 3 percent to 5 percent five years after the opening of the railway.
As one of the first Chinese cities to benefit from the "high-speed rail economy," Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province, has built the poor suburban areas surrounding its high-speed railway station into a populous main city district with a high economic level, and created tens of thousands of new jobs in just a few years after the opening of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway.
The Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway has transported about 90 million passengers over the past three years. Southern Hunan, whose major cities include Binzhou and Hengyang, has undertaken more than 3,000 industrial transfer projects since 2009, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the provincial total. Furthermore, the retail sales of consumer goods of the cities along the Hunan section of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway have increased considerably on an annual basis, far exceeding the provincial average.
The opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway will enable the separation of passenger and freight flows on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, and greatly increase its cargo capacity, said Sun Shuli, chief engineer at the TSDI.
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