WORK on an intercity rail linking Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen is in full swing. It will link to the Shenzhen airport in 2018 when the rail is put into operation, according to a meeting chaired by Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin on Tuesday, which reviewed the city’s Phase IV Metro construction plan and the intercity rail construction plan.

    The 87-km Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen intercity railway is an express railway that will link cities across the Pearl River Delta. It will operate at a top speed of 140 kilometers per hour upon completion. It will start from Zengcheng Metro Station of Guangzhou and enter Shenzhen via Humen in Dongguan. The trip between Shenzhen and Guangzhou will be cut to less than one hour.

    By the end of 2020, when the 13th five-year plan ends, Shenzhen will have 11 rail lines running 430 kilometers, the meeting heard.

    Futian Station on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail will open before the end of the year. A feasibility report about a high-speed rail line linking Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province and Pingshan in Shenzhen has been completed, according to the meeting.

    According to a rail project cooperation agreement signed by Metro operators in Shenzhen and Dongguan earlier this month, Shenzhen Metro Line 11, which will be put into operation in June 2016, will eventually connect with Dongguan’s Metro Line 3.

    The 37-km Metro Line 6 will run from Shenzhen North Railway Station in Longhua New Area to Songgang in Bao’an District and will be connected with Dongguan’s Metro Line 1 at Lilin Station.

    The construction of the 45-km Dongguan Line 1 will start in September 2016 with the line scheduled to be finished in 2022.

    (Han Ximin)