China's railway construction gains strong momentum as Jan.-Aug. investment rises

Actresses perform on the first high-speed train from Ruijin in east China's Jiangxi Province to Yan'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 6, 2026. (Xinhua/Shao Rui)

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's railway construction endeavors maintained solid momentum in the first eight months of 2026, with significant progress made on a number of key projects, the national railway operator said on Wednesday.

Fixed-asset investment in the railway sector totaled 511.8 billion yuan (about 75.68 billion U.S. dollars) in the first eight months of the year, up 1.5 percent year on year, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

This steady progress in railway construction has helped boost related industries and employment, injecting new momentum into the expansion of domestic demand and stable economic growth, the company said.

A number of key projects have recently made positive progress. For instance, the Wenling-Yuhuan section of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou high-speed railway in east China's Zhejiang Province opened to traffic, putting Yuhuan, a city in southeastern Zhejiang, within 1 hour and 47 minutes of the provincial capital Hangzhou by direct high-speed train.

Construction also advanced on several technically challenging projects.

Railway construction teams have pushed tunnel construction forward in cold and difficult mountain terrain, finished tunnels through complex and risky ground conditions, started building beams on major railway bridges, and begun laying tracks on the country's longest high-speed railway bridge under construction.

The company said it will fully implement the railway construction tasks set out in the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), coordinate the planning and construction of new lines with the upgrading and capacity expansion of conventional railways, and continue to improve the quality and efficiency of railway investment to support high-quality economic and social development.

China has built the world's largest high-speed railway network. By the end of 2025, the country's total operating railway mileage had reached 165,000 km, including more than 50,000 km of high-speed rail.

According to the company, the country's operational railway mileage is expected to reach 180,000 km by 2030, with high-speed rail amounting to roughly 60,000 km.

Railway construction boasts a long industrial chain and wide spillover effects, driving demand for steel, cement, construction machinery and equipment manufacturing, while creating local jobs.

In the first seven months of the year, China's railways recorded 2.8 billion passenger trips, up 4.1 percent year on year and a record high for the period. Over the same timeframe, the network carried 14.85 million trips by foreign passengers, a surge of 32.5 percent.

China's railways carried 2.35 billion tonnes of cargo in the first seven months of 2026, rising 0.7 percent from a year earlier, lending solid support to logistics cost cuts and sustained stable economic performance.

Under national plans, China's high-speed rail network is projected to hit 70,000 km by 2035, featuring eight north-south vertical lines and eight east-west horizontal lines. When fully built, the network will cover major cities, city clusters and key economic zones across the country.