At its eastern end, the Yichang East railway station, the Yiwan Railway connects with the high-speed Hanyi railway to Hankou. At Liangwu railway station, the Yiwan railway connects with the high-speed Chongqing–Lichuan railway, the main route of the Huhanrong corridor, and will provide the most direct connection to Chongqing, with a possibility to continue to Chengdu, as well. With the Yuli and Hanyi lines both in operation and in use by high-speed, it will become possible to travel by train between Wuhan and Chongqing in around 5 hours, compared to the 22 hours before the opening of the Yiwan Line. However, the opening of high-speed service on the Yiwan line won't happen until July 1, 2014. Until the Yuli line was completed at the end of 2013, all through traffic on the Yiwan Railway had to go along its entire length, to the line's western terminus at Wanzhou, and then over an existing railway branch to Dazhou, Sichuan. From Dazhou, trains could continue both southwest toward Chongqing on the Xiangyu Railway and west toward Chengdu on the Dazhou–Chengdu Railway.
Layout
The long railway crosses the remarkably difficult terrain of southwestern Hubei and the eastern part of the Chongqing Municipality. The region has numerous mountains and is sometimes referred to as "the eastern edge" of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Until recently, the region had no railways, and hardly any paved roads. The new is being built along the same corridor as well. Out of the entire length of the rail line, are in Hubei and in Chongqing Municipality. Owing to the difficult terrain, the project involves a large number of bridges and tunnels. Out of the line's total length, runs on bridges or in tunnels. This made the line the most difficult and the most expensive of all China's railways to date. At a cost of U.S. per kilometre, the per-kilometre construction costs were twice as high as those for the Qinghai–Tibet Railway which cost U.S. per kilometre.
Construction history
The railway was first proposed by Sun Yat-sen in 1903, but construction was not started until 2003 due to the difficulties of the project. According to the chief engineer, Zhang Mei, the line was the most difficult ever constructed in China. As of mid-2009, the embankments, bridges, and tunnels along the Yiwan Railway had been mostly completed, and about half the rails had been laid. On 2010, the line's construction was completed. Local media reported that the line would become operational in. Trial operations started on 19 November, and regular operation started on 2010, with passenger trains from Wuhan running to Lichuan; on 2011 a through-passenger service started from Wuhan to Chongqing over the entire Yiwan line.
