On the morning of July 28, as the last fishplate bolt on a rail joint in the section between Hepingqiao Station and Youyiqiao Station was tightened, the Nantong Rail Transit Line 1 Phase I project successfully achieved full-line "track connection".

The Rail Transit Line 1 Phase I project is the first urban rail transit line to begin construction in Nantong and is a backbone line running northwest to southeast in Nantong's urban rail transit network. It runs from Pingchao Station to Zhenxing Road Station, with a total length of about 39.182 kilometers and 28 stations, all underground, and includes the Pingdong Depot and Xiaohai Parking Lot.

In urban rail transit construction, track laying is the link between civil engineering and electromechanical construction, playing a key connecting role and representing a key and difficult stage for cross-operation and safety management. The quality of track construction directly affects passenger ride comfort.

"What is track connection? Track laying uses 25-meter-long factory-made standard rails, and track connection is subdivided into 'short-track connection' and 'long-track connection'," said Wang Shoubin, chief engineer of Section 01 of the Rail Transit Line 1 Phase I project. "Short-track connection" means that all 25-meter standard-length track sections have been laid to form a continuous track; to meet train operation conditions, each rail must also be seamlessly welded to achieve "long-track connection", which is track connection in the true sense. "Track connection" is an intermediate linking stage in metro construction, providing construction conditions for subsequent power supply, signaling, communications and other works.

Up to now, the Rail Transit Line 1 Phase I project has successfully achieved tunnel connection and short-track connection, and has completed its first hot-slide test. The first train has successfully arrived at the Pingdong Depot; 15 trains have now arrived at the depot. In the second half of the year, the full line will achieve power connection and carry out joint debugging and testing, and it is expected to open for operation in 2022. The main structures of 16 stations on Rail Transit Line 2 Phase I have been capped, and it is expected to open for operation in 2023.

The Nantong rail transit project has achieved a favorable situation of "planning and starting construction in the same year, two lines advancing in parallel within two years, more than half of the total project completed in three years, capital development and operations gradually implemented, new line planning and construction accelerated, and internal management basically complete", creating the "Nantong speed" of rail transit and establishing the "Nantong brand" of rail transit.