Xinyi–Changxing railway

The Xinchang railway was the first railway to be built in Jiangsu Province north of the Yangtze River. Construction began in September 1998 and the entire line was completed in April 2005. Passenger and freight service commenced on July 1, 2005. A connection to Nantong (a section of the Nanjing–Qidong railway) was added in 2008.[1] The train ferry closed on 16 December 2019.[2] Passenger service south of Hai'an have also been abandoned.

The Xinchang railway connects with the Longhai and Jiaozhou–Xinyi railways in the north and with the Nanjing–Nantong, Beijing–Shanghai, Xuancheng–Hangzhou railways in the south.

Until 2019, the Xinchang line was the only major inland rail line in China to use a river ferry. As the railway has no bridge or tunnel crossing at the Yangtze River, trains had to be ferried across the river from Jingjiang on the northern side of the river (terminal at 31°58′33″N 120°18′27″E) to Jiangyin on the southern side (terminal at 31°57′16″N 120°19′25″E). At its peak, a pair of ferries made 48 trips per day across the river.[3]