The construction of a new express railway between northern China’s Tianjin municipality and Baoding in Hebei province began on Sunday.

The railway, when completed, will shorten the travel time between the two cities to less than an hour and is expected to further speed up economic integration of the Beijing- Tianjin-Hebei economic circle.

With a designed speed of 250 km per hour, the 158-km-long rail will serve both passenger and freight trains.

Shen Jianming, director of the Tianjin section of the rail, said the rail will have seven stations between Tianjin and Baoding, and will open in 2013.

With an investment of 24 billion yuan ($3.5 billion), the project will be funded by the Ministry of Railway, as well as the governments of Tianjin and Hebei, and is part of the railway network that covers Beijing, Tianjin and cities in Hebei.

The intercity railway network is centered in Beijing and Tianjin, and all the cities covered by the network, including Hebei provincial capital Shijiazhuang and coastal Qinhuangdao, are less than two hours away from each other by train.