New trains ease pressure off busy Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail

Two new bullet train models will be put into operation on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line from Monday.

The first model, CR400AF, will depart from the Beijing South Railway Station at 11:05 am and travel towards Shanghai, and the second model, CR400BF, will leave the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station for Beijing at the same time. The information was released by the China Railway Corp, the State-owned rail operator.

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway has become the nation's busiest high-speed rail link, with an average of about 505,000 passenger trips taken each day.

Lu Dongfu, general manager of China Railway Corp, announced the new trains would be called "Fuxing", otherwise known as "Rejuvenation" in English. He released this information at a naming ceremony in Beijing's Daxing district on Sunday.

He said the word rejuvenation has been widely employed by the Chinese government, referring to the goal of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Prior to the latest models, all of the country's bullet trains were labeled with the word "Harmony" on the exterior of each model.

Lu added the new train models were mainly developed based on China's railway standards and technologies, and were designed to be better adapted to China's environment and rail transport patterns.

According to designers at the China Academy of Railway Sciences, the models would travel at a speed of about 350 kilometers per hour; however, the maximum speed of each model will be 400 kph.