Beijing: China on Saturday started operation on
its fastest rail link in the world with a high-speed train
connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an
average speed of 350 kilometres an hour.
The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 KM journey
linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong
Kong, with the capital Beijing, to a three hour ride and cuts
the previous journey time by more than seven-and-a-half hours,
a news agency said.
Test runs for the rail link began earlier in December
during which it recorded a maximum speed of 394.2 km per hour
and the operations officially began today, said Xu Fangliang,
general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to
the news agency.
By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in
Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277
kilometres per hour, he said.
The network uses technology developed in co-operation
with foreign firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.
The work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans
to expand country`s high-speed network, the agency added.
China unveiled its first high-speed line at the time of
the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Country`s ambitious rail
development programme aims at increasing the national network
from the current 86,000 KM to 120,000 KM, making it the most
extensive rail system outside the United States.
PTI
