Recently, accompanied by the rumbling of excavators, the construction of Qingpu Xincheng Station on the Shanghai Demonstration Zone Line of the Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway has reached a new milestone—the station's foundation pit has officially entered the excavation stage, and project construction continues to accelerate.

The Shanghai Demonstration Zone Line starts from the Hongqiao main urban area in the east and extends to Shuixiang Keting in the west, passing through Minhang and Qingpu districts, and achieving interconnectivity with the Jiashan-Xitang Line and the Shuixiang Tourism Line (Jiangsu section). Once Qingpu Xincheng Station is completed, it will enable same-station transfer among three lines: the Shanghai Demonstration Zone Line, the planned Jiaqing-Songjin Line, and Metro Line 17. With a design speed of 160 km/h, once the entire Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway is completed and opened, it will take only 45 minutes to travel from Jiashan or Wujiang to the Shanghai Hongqiao Business District.

Route map of the Demonstration Zone Line

The "Demonstration Zone on Rails" is speeding toward us. The Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway connects three places with a single line and broke ground simultaneously in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang on July 13, 2022. It is a landmark project for advancing the interconnectivity of transportation infrastructure among Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. It consists of the Shanghai Demonstration Zone Line within Shanghai, the Shuixiang Tourism Line within Jiangsu Province, and the Jiashan-Xitang Line and Jiaxing-Fengnan Line within Zhejiang Province, with a total length of 170 kilometers. It is planned to be completed and put into operation in 2028.

Schematic diagram of the Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway

Recently, the construction of the two urban railways of the Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway within Zhejiang has also entered "acceleration" mode.

With towering crane arms, roaring machinery, and flying welding sparks... at the construction site of the SG2 section of the Jiashan-Xitang Line located on Muye Avenue in Jiashan County, more than 180 construction workers are performing their respective duties, some tying rebar and others laying waterproof membranes. The section is about 3.5 kilometers long and lies between Jiashan Station and Zhongxin Industrial Park Station. At present, the base slab of the main structure of the open-cut section has been basically completed, and construction of the side walls and canopy columns is underway. The main structure construction of the open-cut section is expected to be completed in September this year.

Construction site of the SG2 section project

The SG1 section of the Jiaxing-Fengnan Line, 26 kilometers away from the SG2 section construction site of the Jiashan-Xitang Line, is equally bustling. Recently, caissons No. 1 to 7 at Caozhuang Station in this section have been fully rolled out for construction, with nearly 300 construction workers carrying out prefabrication of the main structure and construction of bridge piles for the demolition and reconstruction of the section bridges, creating favorable conditions for the subsequent shield launching of the shield-driven section between Caozhuang Station and Jiaxing South Station.

At the same time, the main structure of the pre-embedded works at Suzhou South Station of the Jiangsu section of the Shuixiang Tourism Intercity Railway has been fully completed, and the relevant procedures for the main line are currently being processed. The Shuixiang Tourism Intercity Railway runs across the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Demonstration Zone and extends south to Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport, linking multiple famous tourist attractions such as Shuixiang Keting, Lili, East Taihu Lake, Nanxun, and Wuzhen. It is worth mentioning that the overall appearance of Shengze Station on the Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou Railway was basically completed recently. The Shuixiang Tourism Intercity Railway and the planned Suzhou Metro Line 16 will also intersect here, making this area a transportation hub integrating high-speed rail, intercity rail, and metro.

As the first rapid commuter railway in the Yangtze River Delta region to span one municipality and two provinces, the Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway, once completed, will enable residents along the line to board at any time and travel with a single ticket, realizing a one-hour transportation circle for the region. In the future, the Shanghai Demonstration Zone Line, the Shuixiang Tourism Line, and the Jiashan-Xitang Line will meet at Shuixiang Keting Station. The Shanghai-Suzhou-Jiaxing Intercity Railway, with its "interconnectivity" DNA and "cross-line operation" capability, will inject strong momentum into the higher-quality integrated development of the Demonstration Zone.