Published : 2024-07-30
On July 30, 1984, the first phase of the Qinghai–Xizang Railway (青藏鐵路) passed the national inspection and was officially put into use.
The Qinghai–Xizang Railway is currently the only railway connecting the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (青藏高原) with other parts of the country. The first phase extends from Xining (西寧) in Qinghai Province to Golmud (格爾木), a total length of 863 kilometres.
The construction began in 1958. Because of the harsh natural environment and construction conditions on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the project was suspended in 1961 and was not resumed until 1973.
The tunnel at Guanjiao, which is at an average altitude of about 3,600 metres, was a major difficulty in the first phase of the project. The frequent landslides during construction caused great difficulty, and dozens of people were buried in the martyr's cemetery of Tianjun County, Qinghai Province, with the youngest being only 19 years old and the oldest just 23 years old.
Because the Qinghai–Xizang Railway’s first phase was constructed in the early years, there were limitations at the time, such as the construction conditions, mechanical equipment, and environmental conditions.
Therefore, despite multiple renovations and upgrades, only regular trains with speeds of 120 to 140 kilometres per hour could be operated.
At the same time, there were still problems such as frost heave, sand damage, saline soil subgrade, and swamp subgrade in some sections of the line, severely restricting the overall improvement of railway capacity.
For these reasons, on June 24, 2021, the quality improvement project for the first phase of the Qinghai–Xizang Railway was launched. After the transformation is complete in 2023, the travel time for the high-speed rail vehicle from Xining to Golmud is reduced to less than 5 hours.
