The most convenient coastal high-speed railway for Qingdao to travel south has finally been put on the agenda.

On October 28, Qingdao's Transportation Bureau announced a competitive consultation on the planning and research project for Qingdao's railway hub layout on the China Government Procurement website, proposing to "further demonstrate the necessity of projects such as the Qingdao-Lianyungang-Yancheng high-speed railway and the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway."

These two railways represent the most convenient route for Qingdao to directly connect with the Yangtze River Delta and the most urgent intercity thoroughfare within the Qingdao metropolitan area, respectively. In the future, they may also become part of the southbound passage of the Bohai Strait cross-sea channel.

However, compared to the more visible Qingdao-Lianyungang-Yancheng high-speed railway and Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway, the real focus of Qingdao's Transportation Bureau's procurement request this time is:

To further align with Qingdao's urban positioning and enhance its overall railway hub status.

The service content explicitly mentions, "Combining Qingdao's overall territorial spatial planning...to promote the alignment of hub layout and network layout, further enhancing Qingdao's railway hub status."

There is an important piece of information here, "Combining Qingdao's overall territorial spatial planning."

Against the backdrop of the national-level downplaying of national central cities (for example, Chengdu, previously one of the nine national central cities, is now merely positioned as a "key central city in western China" in the approval document for its 2035 Master Plan), the upcoming approval of the "Qingdao Territorial Spatial Planning 2035" is highly likely to maintain Qingdao's urban positioning as a "key coastal city in China" (possibly also including an international integrated transportation hub city, a national historical and cultural city, and possibly a "modern maritime city").

Qingdao's positioning as a key coastal city in China is actually very high, basically on par with the provincial capitals of major economic provinces such as Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Nanjing.

Since it is a key coastal city in China, it naturally needs to have the radiance and connectivity of a national coastal hub city.

However, as of the end of 2023, Qingdao had a total railway mileage of 666 kilometers (including 228 kilometers of high-speed rail, 154 kilometers of rapid rail, and 284 kilometers of conventional rail), with high-speed rail accounting for 34%, which is clearly not aligned with the positioning of a "national coastal hub city" and "international integrated transportation hub."

In this regard, there is a particular need to reduce the travel time from Qingdao to Shanghai to within 3 hours, making a coastal high-speed railway the natural best choice.

On the other hand, enhancing Qingdao's railway hub status also requires the quick implementation of the Jiaozhou Bay cross-sea railway and the repositioning of several major railway stations in Qingdao.

1

Let's start with a question: Why is it necessary to build the Qingdao-Lianyungang-Yancheng high-speed railway on top of the already operational Qingdao-Yancheng railway and the already underway Beijing-Shanghai Second Line?

In fact, this is not only necessary for Qingdao's status as a national key coastal city but also relates to the completeness of the national "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed railway network.

A clear comparison is that the shortest travel time by high-speed rail from Qingdao to Beijing has already been reduced to 3 hours, while the shortest travel time from Qingdao to Shanghai, with its greater economic vitality and more distinct opening-up characteristics, is still close to 5 hours.

The current Qingdao-Lianyungang railway has a design speed of 200 kilometers per hour, but due to the need for mixed passenger and freight operations, the actual speed is only 160 kilometers per hour.

And according to the current planning of the Beijing-Shanghai Second Line, the entire route mileage from Qingdao to Shanghai is also about 930 kilometers, which is more than 200 kilometers longer than going to Shanghai via the Qingdao-Yancheng railway.

In other words, even after the Beijing-Shanghai Second Line is completed and opens to traffic in 2028, traveling from Qingdao to Shanghai via this route may still take around 4 to 5 hours, only shortening the current travel time by about half an hour to an hour, and not effectively addressing the issue of Qingdao's rapid travel to Shanghai.

For Qingdao to truly travel rapidly to Shanghai, it needs the construction of a high-speed railway between Qingdao and Rizhao, realized through a coastal high-speed railway corridor. Moreover, in addition to the coastal high-speed railway, the Hefei-Qingdao high-speed railway and Wuhan-Qingdao high-speed railway, both under construction, are likely to connect to Qingdao through the "Qingdao-Rizhao-Lianyungang" section.

It should be noted that the travel time from Yancheng to Shanghai Hongqiao has already been shortened to less than 2 hours through the Yantong high-speed railway, which opened in December 2020.

Furthermore, Jiangsu has been actively planning to improve this coastal high-speed railway.

On May 26, 2023, Jiangsu's Railway Office issued a "Competitive Consultation Announcement on the Planning and Research of the Lianyungang-Yancheng Section of the Coastal High-Speed Railway," officially launching research on the planning and research of this section.

Once completed, Qingdao will be able to reach Shanghai and connect to important hubs such as Hefei and Wuhan through the coastal high-speed railway corridor, with a travel time of only about 3 hours from Qingdao to Shanghai.

However, this may involve a challenge of duplicate construction of routes.

It is necessary to develop a comprehensive solution regarding how the planned Qingdao-Lianyungang-Yancheng high-speed railway and the existing rapid railway will be divided in terms of their functions, whether the latter will shift primarily to freight transport, etc.

It is understood that the Lianyungang-Yancheng railway in Jiangsu, which has been operational since the end of 2018, has only operated CRH trains due to the 200 km/h railway transport policy and the timing of freight transport development along the route. With an average of 22-44 passenger trains per day, the utilization rate of most sections is only about 17%.

The Lianyungang-Yancheng railway was originally designed with a prominent freight transport function as an important transportation infrastructure for the economic integration and development of the Yangtze River Delta region. It plays a significant role in promoting the development of Jiangsu's coastal industrial belt and the economic development of northern Jiangsu, and will establish an intermodal transportation system between ports and railways to accelerate the development of port-adjacent industries.

However, due to operational management requirements and the timing of freight transport development along the route, the freight transport function of the Lianyungang-Yancheng railway has not been activated since its opening.

Jiangsu has been actively seeking to activate the freight transport function of the Lianyungang-Yancheng railway.

2

Next, let's look at the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway.

This is a line from Qingdao to Pingdu and then to Laizhou.

Note that the procurement request uses the term "railway" rather than "high-speed railway," likely indicating that this is an intercity railway serving the Qingdao metropolitan area.

In fact, the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway has been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan for comprehensive transportation development of both Shandong Province and Qingdao City, as well as in the "Shandong Peninsula Intercity Railway Network Planning (2021-2035)."

According to previous planning, the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway has a total length of about 90 kilometers, with three stations and a total investment of 16.2 billion yuan, with a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

Pingdu is the largest district in Qingdao, while Laizhou is a newly added member of the Qingdao metropolitan area, and both cities have made significant breakthroughs in high-speed rail in recent years.

In 2020, the Weifang-Laiyang high-speed railway opened, ending the history of Pingdu without high-speed rail, and Qingdao became the first city in Shandong to achieve "county-to-county high-speed rail connectivity."

More recently, the opening of the Weihai-Yantai high-speed railway ended the history of Longkou, Zhaoyuan, and Laizhou in Yantai without high-speed rail, ushering Yantai into the era of full high-speed rail connectivity and making it the second city in Shandong to achieve "county-to-county high-speed rail connectivity," as well as making Pingdu a county-level city with two high-speed rail connections.

However, for Pingdu, there is an awkward reality: the so-called "double high-speed rail" is more promise than substance.

The Weihai-Yantai high-speed railway station in Pingdu is located at Huibu Station, which is still 40 kilometers away from the city center.

The Pingdu Station on the Weifang-Laiyang high-speed railway cannot directly reach downtown Qingdao and requires a detour.

Previously, Qingdao had planned an intercity subway line to Pingdu, rumored to be Line 14.

However, according to the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Further Strengthening the Planning, Construction, and Management of Urban Rail Transit," new subway projects need to meet a series of indicators, including passenger flow benefits, commuter passenger flow scale, and large passenger flow points. Due to the failure to meet these indicators, the Qingdao Metro Line 14 project was suspended.

Considering various unsatisfactory factors, even though Pingdu has become a county-level city with double high-speed rail connections, the demand for the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway is still urgent.

Furthermore, the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway has also caught up with the dividend of Qingdao's metropolitan area being approved as a national-level metropolitan area.

According to the mandatory requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission for transportation interconnection in metropolitan areas, Qingdao's "one-hour commuting circle" in its metropolitan area needs to take concrete actions as soon as possible.

The "Qingdao Metropolitan Area Development Plan" clearly states:

Promote the integrated construction of trunk railways, intercity railways, and suburban railways, and coordinate with urban rail transit to build a one-hour commuting circle for rail transit.

After the opening of the Weihai-Yantai high-speed railway, Laizhou in the Qingdao metropolitan area has been connected to the national high-speed rail network, but currently, there are only two high-speed rail trains per day from Laizhou to Qingdao North Station, with travel times of 2 hours and 8 minutes and 3 hours and 7 minutes, respectively.

Obviously, for Laizhou to integrate into Qingdao's metropolitan area's one-hour commuting circle, the most realistic option is the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway.

Moreover, the significance of the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway goes beyond this.

According to the response of the Yantai City Transportation Bureau to a deputy's suggestion in June 2021 regarding the inclusion of the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou intercity railway construction project in the 14th Five-Year Plan, the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou intercity railway is one of the southbound passages of the Bohai Strait cross-sea channel, an important channel project for the integrated and coordinated development of the Jiaodong Economic Circle, and a channel project connecting major national and Shandong provincial strategies. It is of great significance for building rapid external transportation channels for Yantai and Qingdao and promoting regional coordinated development, making its construction highly necessary.

Understanding this background sheds light on the critical importance of the Qingdao-Lianyungang-Yancheng high-speed railway and the Qingdao-Pingdu-Laizhou railway for Qingdao's development.