On December 22, 2010 (the 17th winter month of the lunar calendar), the "Yi-Wanzhou Railway", the most difficult mountainous railway in China to build, was officially opened to traffic.

On December 22, 2010, the Yichang to Wanzhou Class I electrified trunk railway, known as the "Bridge and Tunnel Museum" in the industry, began operation. After opening to traffic, it will take about 8 hours from Wuhan to Chongqing, 10 hours less than now.

On the morning of that day, a brief opening ceremony was held at the Railway Station of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei Province. At 10:18, with the sound of a whistle, train No. 4806 started from Enshi Railway Station in Hubei Province, and the local history of "inch-less railways" came to an end.

Early in the morning, people of Tujia, Miao, Han and other ethnic groups who came from far and near gathered in the square of Enshi Railway Station. Zeng Mingquan, an elderly Tujia man from Fengxiangping Village, Hongmiao District, Enshi City, saw the train at his doorstep for the first time: "We have been looking forward to this railway for generations, and today we finally hope that the railway will be opened. In the future, children who work outside can go home often and have a look."

The Yi-Wanzhou Railway is also a century-old dream of China's railway construction. [Today in History] As early as the Qing Dynasty, there was a proposal to build the Sichuan-Han Railway. At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Sun Yat-sen also proposed to build the "Sichuan-Han Railway" in his "Industrial Plan", but these proposals could not be realized due to the chaos of the country and the poverty of the people.

After the founding of New China, several generations of leaders, starting from Mao Zedong, were very concerned about and attached great importance to the construction of the Yizhou-Wanzhou Railway. After several arguments, the construction of the Yi-Wanzhou Railway officially started at the end of 2003, and the railway project that has undergone a century of changes has finally become a reality.

The Yizhou-Wanzhou Railway starts from Yichang City, Hubei Province in the east and ends in Wanzhou District, Chongqing in the west. It is the east route to and from Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei in the west. It is an important part of the "four vertical and four horizontal" passenger transport channels in China's medium and long-term railway network planning and the Shanghai-Han-Chengdu Express Railway Passenger Transport Corridor. The entire railway line is a Class I electrified trunk line. Among them, the 288-kilometer section from Yichang in Hubei to Liangwu is a double line with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour; the 89-kilometer section from Liangwu to Wanzhou in Chongqing is a single line with a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

Because this railway has to pass through karst mountainous areas with extremely complex geological conditions, with high mountains and steep walls and deep river valleys, it is a combination of "the most dangerous and dangerous railway in the southwest mountainous area" and is rare in the world. Therefore, the Yi-Wanzhou Railway is also known as "the most difficult railway in the history of China."

Melted rocks, underground rivers, fault fracture zones, coal-bearing strata and gas, high ground stress... these complex geological problems are all "obstacles" to engineering construction. The most terrifying thing is the countless large dissolved cavities and underground rivers rich in high-pressure water and prone to water and mud surges. This makes tunnel construction extremely difficult. We must always be on guard against the threat of water and mud surges. If we are not careful, we will suffer disaster.

Relying on scientific and technological progress and independent innovation, the Yi-Wanzhou Railway Construction Headquarters and more than 20 participating units have achieved many "firsts" in construction and management: tunnel risk classification was carried out for the first time in the world, advanced geological prediction and prediction were standardized for the first time, and the first time. The special design of the water and mud inrush disaster prevention alarm system for complex karst tunnels was the first to conduct grouting management of unfavorable formations. The patented technology of high-pressure and rich water-filling karst energy release and pressure reduction was used for the first time...

There is a 600,000-cubic meter water-soluble cavity above the Maluqing Tunnel. It is known as the largest water-gushing tunnel in the history of railway construction in the world. A total of 14 large-scale water inrush disasters occurred during construction. After repeated demonstrations, Tiejun tried to adopt the "energy release and pressure reduction method". Through blasting, it was revealed that more than 300,000 square meters of karst gushed out instantly, effectively reducing the pressure of the cave and ensuring construction safety.

Academicians of China Academy of Sciences and Engineering commented that the supporting technology for railway tunnel construction in deep-buried karst areas formed based on the Yizhou-Wanzhou Railway has generally reached the international advanced level.

The Yi-Wanzhou Railway also created several "best" in railway history. There are more than 400 tunnels and bridges across the railway, accounting for 74% of the total length of the line, making it the largest in the world; the total mileage of the railway is 377 kilometers, which took 7 years to build, and the average annual progress is only more than 50 kilometers. It is the longest construction time per kilometer in China. Railway; The total investment of the railway is nearly 22.6 billion yuan, and the average cost per kilometer is about 60 million yuan, twice that of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, making it the highest-cost railway per kilometer in China.

In the past,"the Shu Road was so difficult that it was difficult to reach the blue sky." Now,"the Shu Road is no longer difficult, and it should be completed in half a day." After the opening of the Yi-Wanzhou Railway, the travel time from Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei to Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai will be shortened to 5 to 9 hours.

Guo Bing, deputy passenger transport chief of the Yichang Depot, said that judging from the current train arrangements, there are more passing cars in the east-west direction. There are 5 buses to Chengdu every day, 3 buses to Chongqing, 9 buses to Wanzhou, 10 buses to Lichuan, and 13 buses to Enshi. The transportation capacity is unprecedentedly large and the density of passenger cars is unprecedentedly large. In the future, it will be very convenient to enter Sichuan and out of Sichuan by train.

Xiao Xuming, secretary of the Party Committee of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hubei Province, said that the opening of the Yiwan Railway marks the improvement of the Shanghai-Han-Chengdu rapid and large-capacity transportation channel and is of great significance to accelerating economic growth in Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei regions, promoting the implementation of the western development strategy, and promoting national unity.