China's easternmost high-speed railway handles over 3.5 million passenger trips in first year of operation

Photo shows a train running on the Mudanjiang-Jiamusi high-speed railway, a 372-km line linking the cities of Mudanjiang and Jiamusi in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Yuan Yong)

The Mudanjiang-Jiamusi high-speed railway, a 372-km line linking the cities of Mudanjiang and Jiamusi in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, handled more than 3.5 million passenger trips as of Dec. 6, which marked the first anniversary of the railway's official operation.

The railway is China’s easternmost high-speed line, and passes through cities including Jixi, Qitaihe, Shuangyashan and Jiamusi in Heilongjiang Province.

Over the past year, the daily number of trains running on the railway has been increased from 18 pairs to 25.5 pairs.

With a maximum design speed of 250 km per hour, the railway has made it possible to travel from Mudanjiang to Jiamusi in two hours and 10 minutes, and reduced the travel time between Qitaihe, Jixi, Shuangyashan and Beijing from more than 25 hours to an average of 8.5 hours.

After the railway was put into service, it formed a high-speed rail loop line in eastern Heilongjiang together with the Harbin-Jiamusi intercity railway and Harbin-Mudanjiang high-speed railway, effectively boosting connectivity in Heilongjiang’s railway network while promoting closer exchanges among city clusters in the east of the province.

The daily passenger flow of the railway peaked during summer this year, with the number of passenger trips handled by the railway exceeding 23,000 per day on average.

As high-speed railways in Heilongjiang have connected many of the province’s tourist attractions, including Sun Island Scenic Area and Yabuli Ski Resort in Harbin, Jingpo Lake scenic area in Ning’an, and Qixingfeng national forest park in Shuangyashan, traditional resource-based cities along the railway lines have gained new impetus for transformation and development.