Bejing-Shanghai Rail To Cut Travel Time To 5 Hours

Shanghai, China (AHN) - China will soon start construction on the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway, Minister of Railways Liu Shijun said Sunday.

With a velocity of 300-350 kilometers per hour using high-speed wheel technology instead of magnetic levitation, trains using the new rail link will halve the 10-hour traveling time between the two places to less than five hours.

The project, in the planning stage for over 10 years, will begin construction before the years end. It was initially planned to commence last year and be operational by 2010. The delay has jacked up the project's cost to 170 billion yuan ($22.6 billion) from 130 billion yuan ($17.3 billion), China Business News said.

Four foreign firms from France, Canada, Japan and Germany offered to build the project, but Minister Liu was quoted last year that China preferred to tap local technology and builders. The Xinhua News, however, reported Minister Liu now opts for advanced technology from abroad.

With a faster service, train passengers may have to pay more for the 1,318-kilometer journey. The present train service charges 453 yuan ($60), expected to go up to 600-700 yuan ($809-93). But it is still half the price of an air ticket for the same route.

Aside from the Beijing-Shanghai route, China is slated to complete 7,000 kilometers of railways by 2010 for trains with speed up to 300 kph. On the planning stage are similar projects for the Beijing-Tianjin, Wuhan-Guangzhou and Zhengzhou-Xi'an legs.