Jining–Tongliao railway

The Jitong-Tongliao Railway (simplified Chinese: 集通铁路; traditional Chinese: 集通鐵路; pinyin: Jítōng Tiělù) is a 945-kilometre (587 mi) railway in Inner Mongolia, China, that opened in 1995. Its starting point is at Jining and ends at Tongliao. The Jitong Railway is a joint venture between China Railway and the government of Inner Mongolia. Since Inner Mongolia was one of the poorer provinces of China in the early 1990s, the line was built with an eye towards reducing startup costs, with the intention of upgrading at a future date as funds became available. The tracks were built to a high engineering standard, featuring heavy rail, concrete crossties, and extensive use of tunnels and viaducts to reduce grades. In contrast, lower-cost anachronistic technologies were intentionally selected for cases where it was possible to upgrade incrementally: semaphore signaling, staffed crossing gates, and steam engines.