The total fixed investment on railway is expected to range from 3.5 trillion yuan to 3.8 trillion yuan, among which 3 trillion yuan will be spent on building 30,000 kilometers of new lines. The operational mileage will reach 150,000 kilometers including 30,000 kilometers of high-speed railway, according to a rail development plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) for public review.

The total fixed investment on railway will possibly amount to over 4 trillion yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, an insider in the China Railway Corporation told the reporter from the Caixin Media.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's national network of railway should cover cities with more than 200,000 citizens and the network of high-speed railway cities basically reach cities with more than 500,000 citizens, says the plan. 

With the new railway network, the time spent on traveling from the national hubs to the regional ones or travelling between regional hubs will be within the range from one to eight hours; the time spent on traveling between adjacent large and medium-sized cities will range from one hour to four hours; the time spent on traveling between places in cluster of cities will range from 0.5 hours to two hours.

This plan also elaborates on the construction of high-speed railways, artillery railways and intercity railways.

As for the construction of high-speed railway, the plan lists 23 key railway projects including the railway project from Beijing to Shenyang for the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan, China is expected to construct 27 artillery railways including the railway from Chengdu to Lanzhou, according to the plan. It is the first time that China has stated in a plan that it will start the preparatory studies on the building of railways across the Bohai Strait and Qiongzhou Strait. 

In terms of building intercity railways, China is expected to further 5,000 kilometers or so during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The construction of intercity railways within the eight clusters of cities such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area will be the focus in the sector of intercity railway building.

The plan says that China should build and upgrade 14 railways and 10 railway ports to accelerate the interconnection with the railway network of adjacent nations.