A new railway from Huzhou to west Hangzhou connecting with the Hangzhou-Huangshan high-speed railway was recently approved and its construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year.

As high-speed rail lines open and general airports are completed, Zhejiang is taking a big step towards forming one-hour traffic circles.

One-hour traffic circle refers to achieving a point-to-point arrival within 1.5 hours through economical, fast and convenient transportation. It is mainly realized by high-speed railways, highways and rail transit. On islands and in remote mountainous areas it can be achieved by general aviation short-distance transportation.

Zhejiang aims to basically achieve the three one-hour traffic circles by 2022.

People in Hangzhou can take high-speed trains to Ningbo, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Quzhou and Lishui within 1.5 hours. The high-speed trains from Wenzhou to Hangzhou will take less than 90 minutes after the Hangzhou-Wenzhou railway line is finished in 2022. The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou railway under construction will directly connect Taizhou to Hangzhou within one hour. The general aviation short-haul passenger route from Zhoushan to Hangzhou will be launched before 2022, and will also take less than one hour.

Currently, among Zhejiang's central cities, counties and districts, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua and Quzhou have achieved the one-hour traffic circle and four other cities, Lishui, Wenzhou, Zhoushan and Taizhou, are well on their way.

All of the 11 cities in Zhejiang province have achieved rapid connections between downtown and other urban areas.

By now, Hangzhou to Shanghai and to Nanjing have both achieved one-hour traffic circles, measuring the fastest times at 45 minutes and 62 minutes. After the Hefei-Huzhou section of the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou railway is constructed in 2020, the high-speed rail line will directly link Hangzhou to Hefei, taking about 90 minutes and realizing a one-hour high-speed rail traffic circle from Hangzhou to the main cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.