According to the Suzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau, the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo Railway has recently been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and is expected to start construction before the end of the year.
Connecting with the Yancheng-Nantong Railway, this new north-south railway starts from Nantong City in Jiangsu Province, passes through Suzhou City and Jiaxing City, and ends at Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province. Its main line is 310.113 kilometers long, of which the Jiangsu section is 135.039 kilometers. The new railway has a design speed of 350 km/h and will require a total investment of about 108.09 billion yuan. It is designed with 10 stations, namely, Nantong West, Zhangjiagang, Changshu West, Suzhou North, Suzhou South, Jiashan North, Jiaxing South, Haiyan, Cixi and Zhuangqiao.
It will be more convenient for people in Suzhou to travel by high-speed rail after the Nantong-Suzhou-Jiaxing-Ningbo Railway is completed and put into operation. The opening of the new line is expected to shorten the original 90-minute train ride between Suzhou and Hangzhou to about 60 minutes.