Night train route
Golmud–Korla Railway
Golmud → Korla · China
Opened 2020 across the Altun Shan between Qinghai and Xinjiang: 1,206 km of salt flats, desert and near-total emptiness — one of the loneliest overnight rides on Earth.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 10884548 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 4 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: China Railway 12306 — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Golmud–Korla Railway?
The Golmud–Korla Railway runs 1,206 km from Golmud to Korla.
How long does the Golmud–Korla Railway take?
The fastest scheduled journey is ~12 h for the 1,206 km. That is an average of 101 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 120 km/h.
Who runs the Golmud–Korla Railway?
China Railway, with 25G sleeper stock.
How old is the Golmud–Korla Railway?
The line has been in service since 2020. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
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