Opening of a new railway line between Lhasa and Shigatse

A new line of railway passenger will be open tomorrow, Saturday at 9 am in the Tibet Autonomous Region. It will connect the two largest cities in the region, the regional capital Lhasa Shigatse. With a length of 251 kilometers, it has 14 stations along its route, and the trains will travel at speeds up to 120 km / h, which can also carry up to 8.3 million tonnes of cargo. The new train will reduce travel time by half between the two cities, which now require more than three hours. This line is expected to boost tourism and economic development in the southwest part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Because many people suffer from altitude sickness in this region, the cars will be equipped with an oxygen supply system. The average altitude of more than three thousand feet, and in places it is over four thousand meters. Still, it is a journey that will be smooth in silent cars, despite the mountains and slopes that the line crosses. The train will stop first in four stations between Lhasa and Shigatse; the other will be built in the coming months.
The new line is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the south-west of the Tibet Autonomous Region; she will leave the East, South Station in Lhasa, obliquera southward along the Lhasa River, pass through counties Doilungdêgên and Qushui, then west where it will follow the Yarlung Tsangpo (the Brahmaputra) through nearly 90 km area of the Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon and counties NYEMO and Ringbo before arriving in Shigatse in southwestern Tibet.
This line, like those provided in the East between Lhasa and Nyingchi, west to counties and Yadong Nielamu will be part of the major east-west trunk network Tibet Railway. Extending the "Road of Heaven," the opening and commissioning of the railway line will change the situation of southwest areas of Tibet, which has long been dependent on road transport.