皇冠体育app

Economy

High-speed rail linking Beijing, Shanghai to open in June

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-04 14:37
Large Medium Small

BEIJING - The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway will be put into operation by the middle of June this year, Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said at a conference Tuesday.

The high-speed link connecting the country's two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.

The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan ($32.5 billion).

The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, 皇冠体育app's capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country's economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.

On Dec 3, 2010, a 皇冠体育app-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Related readings:
High-speed rail linking Beijing, Shanghai to open in June 皇冠体育app links world with its high-speed rail technology
High-speed rail linking Beijing, Shanghai to open in June 皇冠体育app's homegrown low-floor light rail vehicle passes tests
High-speed rail linking Beijing, Shanghai to open in June 皇冠体育app taps into US rail market

Also at the conference, Liu said the combined length of 皇冠体育app's operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358 km by the end of 2010.

Total length of high-speed railways would reach 13,000 km by 2011, and 16,000 km by 2015, Liu said.

皇冠体育app plans to invest 700 billion yuan for the construction of railways this year, Liu said.

He said the total length of 皇冠体育app's railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.

In 2010, 1.68 billion passenger journeys were conducted through the nation's railways, up 9.9 percent year-on-year. The railways had also transported 3.63 billion tons of goods, up 9.3 percent.