The Harbin–Suifenhe railway, named the Binsui Railway (), is a

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

trunk

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

between

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest c ...

and

Suifenhe Suifenhe () is a county-level city in southeastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, located where the former Chinese Eastern Railway crosses the border with Russia's town of Pogranichny, Primorsky Krai. In January 2014, ...

on the Russian border. The line was originally built by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

as the eastern branch of the

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...

, which linked Chita with

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, ...

. Today, the railway is administered by Harbin Railway Bureau.

History

Initial construction of the Binsui Railway as a

Russian gauge Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: * Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...

line of the Sino-Russian

started on 9 June 1898 at the two termini of the line, Harbin in China and

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk (russian: Уссури́йск) is a city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the fertile valley of the Razdolnaya River, north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia border and ...

in Russia. The partially built line was destroyed during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...

between March and July 1900, causing the project to be suspended. Construction resumed in October, and on 14 November 1901 operation on a temporary basis was started. Official opening of the line took place on 14 July 1903. After the creation of the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sove ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese ...

in 1932, the CER became a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

-Manchukuo joint enterprise, and was renamed the "North Manchuria Railway". In March 1935, the government of

purchased the Soviet share of the NMR, and merged it into the

Manchukuo National Railway The Manchukuo National Railway (Traditional Chinese and Japanese kanji: , Japanese romanization: ''Manshū Kokuyū Tetsudō'') was the state-owned national railway company of Manchukuo. Generally called the "國線" ("National Line", ''Kokusen ...

, and on 17 June 1936, work to convert the line, known during that time as the Binsui Line (Hinsui Line in Japanese), from Russian broad gauge to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

was completed. The MNR double tracked the line as far as Yimianpo in 1939, and relaid the line with heavier rail in 1942. The MNR began construction of the original Ducao Tunnel in July 1937, opening the new, shorter line on 31 July 1942. At , it was China's longest railway tunnel. To expand the capacity of the line,

China Railway China State Railway Group Company, Ltd., doing business as China Railway (CR), is the national passenger and freight railroad corporation of the People's Republic of China. China Railway operates passenger and freight transport throughout C ...

decided to build a second tunnel, in length, in 1961, but construction was suspended a year later. Work resumed on 1 May 1975, and was completed by the end of 1978. Refurbishment of the original tunnel began in September 1985 and was completed on 21 December 1988. After the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...

in 1945, the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

converted the line back to Russian broad gauge. In 1946, it was converted back to standard gauge once again, and the double tracking was removed; the rails taken up were used to repair other lines. Between 1945 and 1955, the railways in the territory of the former Manchukuo were controlled by the Sino-Soviet China Changchun Railway, after which the railways of the region were taken over by China Railways; the Binsui Line then reverted to its original name, Binsui Railway. The double tracking of the section from Harbin to Mudanjiang was rebuilt by China Railways in 1958. Electrification of the line began in 2010, and the first section, from Mudanjiang to Suifenhe, was completed on 28 December 2015. Wiring of the Harbin–Mudanjiang section began in April 2016. Passenger traffic on the line has increased to 2.3 million passengers annually.牡绥铁路扩能改造工程竣工通车
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Route

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbin-Suifenhe Railway Railway lines in China Rail transport in Heilongjiang Railway lines opened in 1901