At 10:00 AM on December 26, 2025, as the C9309 Fuxing Hao smart EMU train departed slowly from Yan'an Station, the Xi'an to Yan'an High-Speed Railway (hereafter referred to as the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail) officially commenced operations. This milestone marks China's total high-speed rail network exceeding 50,000 kilometers and signifies the essential formation of the main framework of Shaanxi Province's "米"-shaped high-speed rail network. As the first high-speed rail line in the Northern Shaanxi revolutionary base area, the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail has a mainline length of 299.8 kilometers, is a double-track line designed for a speed of 350 km/h. It includes eight newly built stations—Gaoling, Fuping South, Tongchuan, Yijun, Huangling, among others—and involves the expansion of two existing stations, Ganquan North and Yan'an, connecting cities such as Xi'an, Weinan, Tongchuan, and Yan'an.
Following its opening, the fastest travel time between Xi'an and Yan'an has been drastically reduced from the current 2.5 hours to approximately 1 hour. This development greatly enhances travel convenience for residents along the route and vigorously promotes the integrated development of the Guanzhong Plain and the Northern Shaanxi region. A key national project from the 14th Five-Year Plan period and a vital component of the Baotou (Yinchuan)-Haikou High-Speed Rail Corridor, the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail holds significant strategic importance for advancing the large-scale development of the western region, aiding the rural revitalization of revolutionary base areas, and refining the national high-speed rail network layout.
China Railway Electrification Engineering Group (CREE) was responsible for the construction of critical systems on the Tongchuan to Yan'an section, including power supply, traction power supply, general electricity, tunnel lighting, disaster monitoring, and buildings for electrical systems. During the construction phase, the team actively implemented the principles of "intelligent construction, green building, and serving the people," extensively utilizing self-developed equipment such as constant tension stringing vehicles, cantilever and dropper pre-assembly robots, and smart project management platforms. The project also independently developed a digitally controlled dropper production platform, elastic stitch wire and electrical connection production equipment, and an automated stay wire pre-assembly platform, significantly enhancing construction precision and efficiency, stated Zheng Wei, Project Manager of the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail project for CREE.
Confronted with the challenging geological conditions of extensive collapsible loess on the Loess Plateau, the CREE project team innovatively adopted a composite foundation treatment technology combining "cement-soil compaction piles and lime-soil cushion layers." This technique involves creating a deep reinforcement system using cement-improved soil compaction piles with diameters of 400 mm and depths ranging from 5 to 15 meters, complemented by a 1 to 3-meter thick lime-soil cushion layer to eliminate shallow collapsibility. This approach ensures the foundation's bearing capacity characteristic value consistently exceeds 180 kPa, effectively controls settlement, and guarantees the long-term safe and stable operation of critical facilities like traction substations, providing a replicable and scalable technical model for high-speed rail construction in China's collapsible loess regions.
Looking ahead, the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail will interconnect with the under-construction Xi'an-Ankang, Ankang-Chongqing, and Yan'an-Yulin high-speed rail lines to form a major north-south high-speed rail corridor traversing Shaanxi. This network will further strengthen the radiating function of Xi'an as a national central city and elevate Shaanxi's strategic role as a pivotal point within the national railway hub framework. The arrival of high-speed rail on this historic red soil heralds a new journey of revitalization for the old revolutionary base area. The opening of the Xi-Yan High-Speed Rail is not merely the completion of a transportation artery; it is a road to revitalization that connects history with the future, carrying the hopes and dreams of the people.