The high-speed rail line connecting Beijing and Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, will begin operation at the end of 2012. By then, the high-speed railway will extend from Beijing to Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, and reduce the previous three-plus-hour travel time to roughly two hours.

At present, eight high-speed rail trains run between Beijing and Taiyuan every day. But operational efficiency of high-speed rail trains is low because they cannot be fully utilized on the outdated Beijing-Guangzhou rail line, which was completed in the late 1990s to connect Beijing and Shijiazhuang.

The Beijing-Shijiazhuang high-speed rail line spans 281 kilometers and passes through six stations, namely Beijing West Railway Station, Zhuozhou Railway Station, Gaobeidian Railway Station, Baoding Railway Station, Dingzhou Railway Station and Shijiazhuang South Railway Station. It is currently in trial operation.

The Beijing-Shijiazhuang high-speed rail line will attract more passengers to travel using the high-speed train. It will integrate Taiyuan into the two-hour economic circle surrounding Beijing and further strengthen the connection between Shanxi province, central China and the Bohai Bay Economic Rim, reported the Shanxi Evening News.