The construction planning for the second high-speed railway between Shenzhen and Guangzhou has been listed in a State plan, according to a letter of the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission responding to provincial lawmakers’ proposals to the recent Fourth Session of the 13th Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress.
The railway will have a terminal in Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, running through Dongguan to Guangzhou, with stations at Guangzhou South, Guangzhou, Guangzhou East and Guangzhou Baiyun Airport.
In the letter, the commission said the proposal on building a high-speed rail linking Shenzhen and Guangzhou’s urban areas to ensure high-frequency trips between the two cities within one hour is positively significant. The commission will organize related organizations to make preliminary studies over the railway’s function, operation speeds and route designs.
According to earlier media reports, the new high-speed rail will use maglev technology, with a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour. It will enable trips between central urban areas of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to be shortened to 15 minutes.
The Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission released a bidding notice in November 2019 to seek research on maglev rail-related issues such as the present level of maglev technologies, roles of a new Guangzhou-Shenzhen line, passenger flows, route designs, investment estimates and operation cost.
The trip between the urban areas of Shenzhen and Guangzhou is about 150 kilometers and takes about two hours by car. At present, there are three railways, namely Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Rail running between the two cities. It takes 59 minutes for the fastest train running along Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway. The time for high-speed trains running between Shenzhen North Railway Station and Guangzhou South Station on Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is 29 minutes. It takes 70 minutes for trains running along the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Rail between Guangzhou East Station and Shenzhen Airport Station.
If the second high-speed rail is designed at a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour, it will nearly double the speed of current Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, according to experts at a design forum in Guangzhou in 2018.