Yichang–Wanzhou railway

over the Yangtze River near the eastern terminus of the railway in Yichang. . At its eastern end, the Yichang East railway station, the Yiwan Railway connects with the high-speed Wuhan–Yichang railway to (Wuhan). At Liangwu railway station, the Yichang–Wanzhou railway connects with the high-speed Chongqing–Lichuan railway (Yuli), the main route of the Huhanrong corridor, which provides the most direct connection to Chongqing and on to Chengdu. From Liangwu, the Yichang–Wanzhou railway heads north to reach Wanzhou. With the Yuli and Hanyi lines both in operation and in use by high-speed, it will become possible to travel by train between Wuhan and Chongqing in around 5 hours, compared to the 22 hours before the opening of the Yiwan Line. Until the Yuli line was completed at the end of 2013, all through traffic on the Yiwan Railway had to go along its entire length, to the line's western terminus at Wanzhou, and then over an existing railway branch to Dazhou, Sichuan. From Dazhou, trains could continue both southwest toward Chongqing on the Xiangyang–Chongqing railway and west toward Chengdu on the Dazhou–Chengdu Railway. ==Layout==

The long Until recently, the region had no railways, and hardly any paved roads (beyond China National Highway 318, which the new railway more or less parallels). The new (G42 Hurong Expressway) was built along the same corridor as well (see Si Du River Bridge for an example of engineering that was required). Out of the entire length of the rail line, are in Hubei and in Chongqing Municipality. ==Construction history==

, at the western end of the Yiwan line The railway was first proposed by Sun Yat-sen in 1903, but construction was not started until 2003 due to the difficulties of the project. According to the chief engineer, Zhang Mei, the line was the most difficult ever constructed in China. On 2010, the line's construction was completed. Trial operations started on 19 November, and regular operation started on 2010, with passenger trains from Wuhan running to Lichuan; on 2011 a through-passenger service started from Wuhan to Chongqing over the entire Yiwan line. ==See also==