Guangzhou-Shenzhen Intercity Railway Opens in Full
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen (Suishen) intercity railway became fully operational on July 31, 2026, when the Zhuliao-Xintang South section opened and connected with the existing line to Shenzhen Airport. The completion directly links Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport by rail, with the fastest through-journey now taking under 100 minutes, according to Xinhua News.
A Long-Awaited Link in the Greater Bay Area Grid
The new 48.2-kilometer section adds seven stations — Zhongluotan East, Jiufo, Folang, Xinlong, Zhenlong, Yongning North and Yongning South — and weaves through some of Guangzhou’s fastest-growing districts, including the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City and the Zengcheng Development Zone. The line’s first phase, from Guangzhou East to Shenzhen Airport, opened in December 2019 with 15 stations, as Wikipedia records. With the new section, the Suishen line now forms a continuous rail corridor along the eastern bank of the Pearl River.
According to Guangzhou Daily via the Greater Bay Area portal, the opening also included a new Dongguan West connecting line, which ties the Suishen line into the wider Pearl River Delta intercity network and enables direct services such as Pazhou to Shenzhen Airport in a fastest time of about 60 minutes — no transfer required. Express trains stop at Zhuliao, Zhenlong, Xintang South, Dongguan West, Humen North, Chang’an and Shenzhen Airport, linking the two airports with high-speed rail stations at Xintang and Humen.
Wen Meichun, media relations director at Guangzhou Metro Group, said the through-operation would “link Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, the Zengcheng Development Zone and Shenzhen Bao’an Airport, accelerating the construction of a vertical rail backbone along eastern Guangzhou and further upgrading the Guangzhou-Shenzhen one-hour living circle.”
Built for Metro-Style Commuting
The section was built by China Railway Construction Corporation, with the Pearl River Delta Intercity Rail Company under Guangzhou Metro Group serving as constructor and Guangdong Intercity Operation Company running the line, according to Guangming Daily. A new Guangdong Intercity timetable that took effect on July 22 runs five all-stop routes and six express routes daily, and NewsGD reports that two additional express routes were added once the new section opened.
Zhang Qiao, deputy chief engineer at Guangdong Intercity’s station service center, explained that the line retains its “bus-ification” model combining all-stop trains with big-station expresses. Passengers can use a dual ticketing system — the intercity multi-payment service or the national 12306 railway platform — scanning a QR code to board without assigned seats. Guangdong Intercity said commissioning of the new section involved more than 500 test sequences and 19 fault-simulation and emergency-rescue drill scenarios ahead of the opening.
Engineering the route was a considerable undertaking. The bridge over the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, built by China Railway 22nd Bureau, stretches about 3,887 meters with a maximum continuous beam span of 128 meters, the largest single concrete continuous beam span on the line; the Lihu long tunnel section, built with China Railway 14th Bureau, was the key control segment.
What Full Operation Means for the Region
The full-line opening marks a significant step toward the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s “one-hour living circle.” The Suishen corridor connects seven Pearl River Delta cities — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhaoqing and Qingyuan — binding together two of China’s busiest international airports and the manufacturing and innovation hubs along the delta’s eastern corridor.
The bus-ification model is central to that vision. By making intercity trains behave more like metro services — high frequency, no reserved seats, contactless ticketing — operators aim to make cross-city commuting feel as routine as a subway ride. The dual-ticketing system, already rolled out across Guangdong Intercity lines, also lowers the barrier for occasional travelers who might find the national railway booking process daunting.
For businesses in the knowledge park and development zones along the new section, the railway delivers what Guangzhou Metro Group calls a “vertical rail backbone”: faster, more predictable access to both airports and, through the Dongguan West link, the wider intercity grid.
The Road Ahead
With the Suishen line now operationally complete, attention turns to how the wider Pearl River Delta network absorbs the added capacity. The Dongguan West link enables cross-line through-services that make route planning more flexible, and further timetable adjustments are likely as ridership patterns settle. For passengers, the immediate payoff is straightforward: a rail journey of under 100 minutes between two of southern China’s biggest airports — a connection years in the making.