After more than 5 years, the construction of Xianghe Tunnel which is part of Guangzhou-Dali's high speed railway has been completed on February 6th.

The tunnel, last 10.22km, is the most difficult part of the Guangzhou-Dali high speed railway's construction due to its complicated geographical environment.

This exciting news means the high-speed train from Kunming to Dali will be launched soon! According to our source, the first high-speed train from Kunming to Dali will most likely be launched around July 2018.

While a normal train ride takes 6 hours from Kunming to Dali, the high-speed train will take only 2 hours, that's 4 hours shorter! It also means it will shorten the journey from Kunming to Lijiang to only 4 hours.

Since the construction of high-speed railway between Dali to Lijiang has been proposed to the agenda by both local governments, we can expect it will take only 2.5 hours from Kunming to Lijiang in the future!

Ref: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4XyIdPjvC7-Ec9fWaHleKA

This will be from the new south station then, instead of from the old central station from now on? For those who don't live in Chenggong, it is almost a long distance journey to get to the long distance station! Still, the high speed of the rail journey still will make it an overall shorter trip.

Thx for the updates. Useful info pengland.

@Quester yeah, I suppose the high speed train will only be from new south station, regarding the distance compared to the old central station, I think there's no way to meet everyone's expectation. The launch will surely benefits both locals & tourists though.

It was reported there are inner-city trains connecting the old train station in downtown Kunming and the South Train Station in Chenggong.

Yes, there is an inner-city train. It's better known as the subway.

I think AlexXiang is talking about actual trains inside the downtown station to the new south station. I think that exists as I saw some signs saying high-speed station inside the downtown station. AlPage48 is correct also, as the metro is just technically underground intercity trains.

Subway, Metro, Tube and so on... Everyone knows what you mean when you say any of them, so a mute point guys! I'll stick to using the name 'tube' ;o)