Shanghai to Chengdu D train - still running?
 

I'm trying to find the timetable for the high speed D train between Shanghai and Chengdu, seems like it started running in 2011 but I can't find it on any timetables for this year...I saw there was some controversy over it due to cost of tickets, have they stopped running it? All I can find are the K trains or the d train on some shorter routes (i.e Chengdu to Chongqing)

Thanks!

I think you've been misinformed about this route - currently no high-speed line from Shanghai to Chengdu. The best you can do timewise for a western Chinese city is a D train to Zhengzhou and then transfer to a G train to Xi'an North. Did that a few months ago, about nine hours if I remember quickly.

You might be thinking of the Wuhan-Guangzhou line that opened a few years ago. There was indeed a minor hubbub about the high costs of the tickets, particularly as many of the cheaper options along this route were eliminated.

This is one of the articles that was talking about the route: http://www.chinahush.com/2010/12/30/...ai-to-chengdu/
and these ones:
http://blog.chinatravel.net/uncatego...o-chengdu.html
http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/blog/it...ins_on_the_way

Also there seemed to be some older threads c.2011 on tripadvisor etc. about the "new" (back then) high speed line

Interesting. I thought I would have heard of this.

Nevertheless, poking around Chinese booking sites and timetables, there is currently no high-speed train running the entire length of the route. Seems you can get as far as Yichang, Hubei, two HSR running from Shanghai D3006 and D3072 .

There's something very interesting about that blog link article. He mentions Chengdu North Station, which isn't an entity anymore. Unless he means Chengdu Main station which is on the north central part of the city. And the route he mentions at the end of his article (Suzhou - Nanjing - Hefei - Wuhan Hankou - Ankang - Nanchong - Chengdu) in February 2011 never had high speed track on more than the first part of this route. This seemed to be mostly a Big Marketing Ploy--a trial run that just wasn't sustainable. The inadvisability of running D trains on old style tracks made scheduling and operating with the other slow trains on that track problematic. The train used new D rolling stock that had no hard sleepers, which on this type of route is a big mismatch with customer needs. And it had high ticket prices that most locals couldn't/wouldn't pay. I don't recall this "Harmony Train" experiment lasted very long, and it was removed from the schedule.

This exact route is currently designated Z122, uses standard (but nice) rolling stock, and takes 20.5 hours. Soft sleeper tickets around RMB 800.

The actual physical location of the final route, when completed, is not the same as described above. The full length of the true Shanghai-Chengdu high speed rail is not yet operational, as one segment (Wanzhou area) still has to be completed. Maybe later this year.

Unless one has time and inclination to stop off on the way and make it a true journey (actually a worthwhile endeavor), for the moment Shanghai-Chengdu is best done by flight.

Scrap that... looked at my email archives and it wasn't Chengdu...