Until the 21st century, Zhuhai did not have any railway connections to the rest of the country.

The construction originally started in 1997, but it was stopped later due to lack of funds.

[3][4] However, work did not proceeded as fast as expected; as of December 2011, it was reported that although most of the critical components of the project was completed, there was still about 100 m to go at the Jiangmen tunnel (see below), and the Jiangbei Bridge was still under construction.

The entire line is electrified with provisions to allow for operating double-stack container trains.

[8] Constructing the railway involved digging a 9185 m long tunnel in Jiangmen.