Construction of the Sichuan-Tibet railway will begin in September, according to a Sichuan-based news site. Trains running on the line will have a designed speed of 200 kph and will take eight hours to complete the 1,629km-long trip between Lhasa and Chengdu. However, the task of constructing the line will be onerous, due to the mountainous terrain, cold weather, a lack of oxygen and frequent rockslides.

The existing rail journey between the two cities, via Shaanxi and Qinghai, takes around 45 hours. The only other land-based transport alternative is via the No 318 national highway, where the journey time is around three days.

The first railway line to Tibet opened in July 2006, when the line from neighbouring Qinghai became operational.