Railroads News
- Guangdong News
Date: 13-Apr-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
TRAINS running between Shenzhen and Guangzhou will reach speeds up to 200 kilometers per hour from next Wednesday as 10 pairs of new bullet trains begin regular services.
Guangzhou Railway Group, operator of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway, said that 10 domestically made CRH (China Railway High-speed) trains, identified in timetables by the initial letter 'D,'would cut the travel time between the two cities by 10 to 13 minutes.
At the same time, a 4.75-billion-yuan (US$609-million) new line linking the two cities, will go into use, greatly increasing the capacity of the busy route.
A timetable released by the Ministry of Railways on Thursday shows the minimum travel time between Shenzhen and East Guangzhou Railway Station cut to 54 minutes.
The speedup is part of a nationwide rail acceleration program that will see some trains reaching speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour for the first time.
Hu Yadong, vice minister of railways, told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday that the scale of the forthcoming acceleration was 'unprecedented.'
From next Wednesday, the maximum speed for trains on major routes will rise from 160 kilometers per hour to 200 kilometers per hour on more than 6,000 kilometers of track. Some trains running between Beijing and Harbin, Beijing and Guangzhou and Beijing and Shanghai will be allowed to reach a maximum of 250 kilometers per hour.
A total of 140 pairs of bullet trains will be introduced nationwide, and the number will double by the end of the year, said Hu.
The increase in line speeds is the rail network's sixth upgrade, the first of which was 10 years ago.
Preparation for the latest upgrade, which cost 26 billion yuan, began in 2003. It is also expected to raise the passenger handling capacity of the nation's rail network by 18 percent and cargo capacity by 12 percent, according to the Ministry of Railways.
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