China Railway has announced that track laying has commenced on the Fangchenggang-Dongxing Railway, which will offer a direct high-speed railway service to the Vietnam border.
On 8 August, the first set of 500-metre-long steel rails was laid within the territory of Fangchenggang City in Guangxi, China.
This track-laying work is expected to be completed by the end of September this year. In total, it will involve laying 106.7 kilometres of rails, with construction passing through 8 tunnels and 32 bridges.
The Fangchenggang-Dongxing Railway is being constructed at the west end of China’s coastal railway network. It will be the first railway to reach Dongxing City, which is the only port to connect China and Vietnam by both land and sea.
The main line of the railway will be 46.9 kilometres long. Once operational, it will reduce travel times between Fangchenggang and Dongxing from 60 minutes to approximately 20 minutes.
Currently, all tunnel and bridge work along the railway has been completed. The track bed work is 90% complete, and the station work is 97% complete. The route is thus expected to commence passenger service by the end of December 2023.
