The Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway or Huning intercity railway is a 301 km-long high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. Hù and Níng are shorthand Chinese names for Shanghai and Nanjing, respectively. The Huning intercity high-speed railway largely follows the route of the preexisting Nanjing-Shanghai section of the conventional Beijing–Shanghai railway and the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway. Construction of this high-speed railway began in July 2008. The line went into test operations in early April 2010, and opened for full service on July 1, 2010. The line has a design speed of 350 km/h. The journey time between the two cities has been shortened from 120 minutes to 73 minutes on nonstop trains. According to the arrangements of related departments, 120 pairs of trains are operating on the line, and the time interval between services is 5 minutes at the shortest. The railway links major cities in the Yangtze River Delta, including Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang, effectively making the southern Jiangsu city-belt operate like a single metropolitan region. The Shanghai–Nanjing intercity high-speed railway is also used by the majority of high-speed trains leaving Shanghai's terminals for Wuhan, Yichang, Chongqing, and Chengdu thus making it de facto a part of the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu passenger-dedicated railway.

Route

Stations

The Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed railway has 21 stations altogether along its route. In both Shanghai and Nanjing, this railway's trains may use either one of two different terminals (Shanghai railway station or Shanghai Hongqiao railway station in Shanghai, and Nanjing railway station or Nanjing South railway station in Nanjing). Due to the alignment of the rail line, some stations along it are shared with the conventional Beijing–Shanghai Railway (Shanghai, Suzhou, Zhejiang, Nanjing), while three others are shared with the new Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (Shanghai Hongqiao, Kunshan South, Nanjing South). Due to comparatively frequent spacing of stations on the Shanghai–Nanjing high-speed railway, quite a few of them are situated at locations not served by either of the two other railways. List of stations:

Jiangsu Province

Nanjing City

Zhenjiang City

Changzhou City

Wuxi City

Suzhou City

Shanghai Municipality

At Shanghai Hongqiao, some trains arriving from Nanjing continue to the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway, providing a one-seat service along the entire Nanjing–Shanghai–Hangzhou line.