During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the province completed a cumulative investment of 629.3 billion yuan in transportation infrastructure, which is 160% of the “12th Five-Year Plan”. On January 14, the 2021 Provincial Transportation Work Conference held in Nanjing analyzed the current situation and clarified the overall development approach for the “14th Five-Year Plan”. Xinhua Daily · Jiaohuidian reporters learned that Jiangsu strives to complete 1 trillion yuan in transportation infrastructure investment during the “14th Five-Year Plan”.
　　Taking the lead in building a demonstration zone for a transportation powerhouse
　　During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, Jiangsu's transportation played a prominent supporting and leading role in serving the province's economic and social development.
　　“Shortcomings in comprehensive transportation have been acceleratedly addressed. The total operating mileage of trunk railways in the province reached 4,204 kilometers, including 2,215 kilometers of high-speed railways, an increase of 1,356 kilometers over 2015, a growth rate of 158%, jumping from 14th nationwide at the end of the ‘12th Five-Year Plan’ to 3rd, initially achieving a networked ring, and the trunk railway corridors in northern, central, and southern Jiangsu have been fully opened.” introduced Lu Yongquan, Director of the Provincial Department of Transportation and Director of the Provincial Railway Office. Railways have basically achieved 2-hour accessibility from all prefecture-level cities in the province to Nanjing and 2.5-hour accessibility between prefecture-level cities. The province has opened 85 international and regional civil aviation routes, reaching 55 international and regional cities, and the direct civil aviation access rate to important trading countries and regions has increased from 75% in 2015 to 85%. International passenger throughput of civil aviation has increased by nearly 200%.
　　By the end of the “13th Five-Year Plan”, Jiangsu's expressway mileage reached 4,924 kilometers, with an area density of 4.8 kilometers per hundred square kilometers, ranking third nationwide. Rural road mileage reached 142,800 kilometers. Road conditions and service levels are among the top in the country. The comprehensive port throughput capacity reached 2.12 billion tons, an increase of 14% over 2015, and port cargo throughput reached 2.97 billion tons, accounting for one-fifth of the national port throughput.
　　Facing the “14th Five-Year Plan”, how will Jiangsu's transportation develop?
　　“Overall, Jiangsu's transportation development level is at the forefront of the country, but benchmarking against modern comprehensive transportation system standards, the requirements for provincial integration and high-quality development, and the people's demand for better travel, there are still problems of imbalance and inadequacy.” said Lu Yongquan. “The ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ will be a period for Jiangsu to build ‘people-satisfied transportation’. The overall goal is: by 2025, basically complete a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network with the characteristics of a world-class city cluster, and basically form a transportation and logistics system characterized by urban-rural integration, regional coordination, domestic smoothness, and international accessibility; achieve smart, green, and safe transportation at the forefront of the country, and the modernization level of transportation governance system and capacity leading the country; take the lead in building a demonstration zone for a transportation powerhouse. Strive to complete 1 trillion yuan in transportation infrastructure investment, comprehensively strive for southern Jiangsu to take the lead in basically achieving transportation modernization, and within the province, transportation infrastructure represented by high-speed railways, intercity railways, expressways, and new hubs will basically achieve modernization.
　　Supporting the new development pattern with new leaps in infrastructure
　　Reporters learned that during the “14th Five-Year Plan”, Jiangsu transportation will focus on transforming infrastructure towards strong corridors and strong networks, supporting the new development pattern with new leaps in infrastructure.
　　In enhancing the capacity of national-level major corridors, it will strengthen the Yangtze River corridor, accelerate the construction of a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation corridor for the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and further leverage the efficiency of the Yangtze River golden waterway; smooth the coastal corridor, build the new outlet at Tongzhou Bay, and plan and layout the coastal high-speed railway corridor; consolidate the land bridge corridor, and build a cross-border logistics corridor for the Silk Road Economic Belt; expand the capacity of the Beijing-Shanghai corridor, build the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou express line and the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou South Expressway, and plan a super high-speed rail corridor.
　　In strengthening the function of comprehensive transportation hubs, the Nanjing-Zhenjiang-Yangzhou area will focus on enhancing Nanjing's primacy, building an important regional international aviation hub and a regional shipping and logistics center in the Yangtze River Delta, and constructing a “rice”-shaped high-speed railway network directly connecting the whole country; the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou-Nantong-Taizhou-Yancheng area will build Wuxi into a national comprehensive transportation hub and Changzhou into a regional central axis transportation hub city; the Lianyungang-Huai'an-Xuzhou-Suqian area will build Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an as a combined hub into a national comprehensive transportation hub city.
　　In improving the efficiency of the comprehensive transportation network, it will basically complete a high-quality rapid transportation network consisting of a high-speed railway network, regional intercity railway network, expressway network, air transport network, and river-crossing channels; complete a trunk transportation network consisting of a water transport network, metropolitan intercity railway network, conventional railway network, ordinary national and provincial highway network, and oil and gas pipeline network; and improve a basic network mainly consisting of suburban railways, urban rail transit, railway branch lines, rural roads, and general aviation airports.
　　During the “14th Five-Year Plan”, Jiangsu transportation will transform cargo transportation towards cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, ensuring the modern circulation system with the new vitality of the logistics network. In smoothing the domestic transportation cycle, it will mainly focus on building a regional multimodal transport system, developing river-sea and river-rail combined transport, accelerating inland river container development, creating efficient rail-water intermodal transport corridors from the Yangtze River to inland areas, creating fast rail-water intermodal transport corridors from the eastern coastal areas to the central and western regions, and improving the layout of the domestic air cargo network. In strengthening the international transportation cycle, it will leverage the advantages of coastal and river ports in the world-class port cluster, with complementary and differentiated development. Strengthen the overall planning of international cargo routes, and optimize the transportation layout of ocean routes such as the US West, Middle East, and Europe.
　　“To meet public travel needs with a new height of happy transportation, during the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ period, Jiangsu transportation will focus on promoting passenger transport services towards strong hubs and convenient transfers.” said Lu Yongquan. Around accelerating the formation of 2-hour interconnectivity among prefecture-level cities in the province, promote the integration of multiple rail transit modes and develop “bus-style” rail transit passenger services. In the Nanjing-Zhenjiang-Yangzhou and Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou integration pilot areas, achieve “1-hour” rail transit commuting services.
　　Railway development remains the top priority. Ding Junhua, a first-level inspector of the Provincial Railway Office, introduced that the “14th Five-Year Plan” is another golden five years for Jiangsu to move towards expanding and improving trunk railways, accelerating the construction of intercity railways, multi-level rail supply, multi-network integration, and building with greater efforts and transporting with higher quality at a new starting point. By 2025, the province will add 1,300 kilometers of high-speed rail, covering all prefecture-level cities and 90% of county-level nodes, achieving 1.5-hour accessibility from the provincial capital Nanjing to all prefecture-level cities and 1-hour accessibility to core cities in the Yangtze River Delta.
　　Plan to start 18 major transportation projects this year
　　This year, Jiangsu plans to complete 170.3 billion yuan in transportation infrastructure investment and start 18 major projects.
　　This year, construction will start on projects such as the North Yangtze River High-Speed Railway, the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo Railway, the Yancheng-Taizhou-Wuxi-Changzhou-Yixing Railway, the Hefei-Xinyi Railway, the Zhanggao River Crossing Channel, the Haimen-Tongzhou Expressway, and the north and south connections of the Changtai Bridge. Strive to start the capacity expansion and renovation project of the Nanjing-Wuhu Railway, and accelerate the preliminary work of projects such as the Nanjing-Xuancheng Railway, the Yangzhou-Zhenjiang-Nanjing-Ma'anshan Railway, the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou express line, and the third phase of Lukou Airport.
　　Ding Junhua introduced that this year our province will ensure the completion of 58.2 billion yuan in railway investment for the whole year. Optimize and improve the “self-centered” railway planning system, and strive to include a batch of new projects such as Changzhou-Taizhou and Xinyi-Huai'an in relevant national plans.
　　Around supporting the construction of a new development pattern, Jiangsu will also make every effort to build an efficient freight logistics system this year, and accelerate the development of multimodal transport in Nanjing, Lianyungang, Suzhou, Xuzhou, and other cities.
　　Around building a high-level travel service system, the province will complete the opening and adjustment of more than 200 bus routes this year; add 2 urban rail transit lines to open and operate; accelerate the integration of urban and rural bus networks, and launch a batch of demonstration counties for urban-rural bus integration; accelerate the development of intercity railway passenger transport, and enhance the intercity transportation function within the Yangtze River city cluster and metropolitan area.