The Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan high-speed railway and Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway connection is expected to be completed on Dec 26, which will give Shanxi province its first high-speed railway, running at an average 300 km/hr. This will cut the travel time from Taiyuan, Shanxi’s capital, to Beijing to only two and a half hours, and the time to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to less than 10-and-a-half hours.

Liu Feng, vice-head of the Taiyuan municipal railway bureau, said that the connection will solve many transportation capacity problems on the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan high speed railway line, with a convenient transport line with huge capacity.

This also has a significant impact on travel times from Shanxi to various economic zones in China, with personnel, economic, cultural, and information contacts a lot more convenient, making better use of the province’s resource, geographical location, and industrial advantages, and boosting the growth of the local economy and society development. Liu added.

The 2,298-km Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway will open on Dec 26 and is expected to cut travel time to about 8 hours, from the current 20-some hours on conventional lines. It is designed for a maximum speed of 350 km/hr, with 35 major stops, in Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, and other cities.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw