Hainan western ring high-speed railway


The Hainan western ring high-speed railway is a high-speed railway operated by China Railway Guangzhou Group in Hainan Province. It started operation on 30 December 2015.
The long rail line runs along the western half of the island's coastline, from Haikou railway station in the north to Sanya railway station. At its two end points, it connects with the existing Hainan eastern ring high-speed railway, thus forming a high-speed railway ring spanning 653 km long, around the entire island, as well as the world's first and only circular high-speed railway line. The circular closed loop allows passengers to travel along the entire circumference of the island in approximately 3 hours at the shortest time, and connects all twelve coastal cities and counties, as well as having additional stops at Haikou and Sanya airports.
Unlike the Hainan eastern ring high-speed railway, which runs along the coast previously not served by railway, the Western Ring high-speed railway roughly parallels the conventional-speed Hainan Western Ring Railway, which has connected Haikou and Sanya since 2005.

History

The Hainan western ring railway was constructed in two stages.
The first short section connects the existing Sanya railway station with the new Phoenix Airport railway station, to the west. The section has one intermediate station, Sanya West railway station. The construction work on this section was planned to be completed by the end of 2014.
On the rest of the railway - the much longer section from Sanya Phoenix Airport to Haikou - progress was only in its preliminary phase in 2012. Property was acquired, and demolition was conducted. According to the construction plans, 22,300 mu of land will be permanently used by the railway and associated facilities, and another 8,800 mu was temporary used during construction. Eighty-seven thousand m2 of housing was demolished. The necessary demolitions were completed by the end of 2013.
In November 2015, the first test train travelled on the 344 km Western ring high-speed railway, and completed the 652 km circular railway loop around the island. The western ring high-speed railway became officially operational and open to the public in December 2015.

Stations

As of 2018, many of the stations were not in use. The list below names the settlements where the stations are located. They will be named correspondingly.

Rolling stock