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2009-12-28 04:53:23
Sat Dec 26, 7:54 am ET
BEIJING (AFP) China on Saturday unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail
link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and
Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.
The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 kilometre journey to a three hour
ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven and a half hours,
the official Xinhua news agency said.
Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed
network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China
near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.
"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in
operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the
railways ministry, told Xinhua.
Test runs for the service began earlier in December and the link officially
went into service when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of
Wuhan on Saturday.
By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres
per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, said Xu Fangliang,
general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to Xinhua.
Beijing has an ambitious rail development programme aimed at increasing the
national network from the current 86,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres,
making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.
China unveiled its first high-speed line at the time of the Beijing Olympics in
2008 -- a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin.
In September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012
in a massive system overhaul as part of efforts to spur economic growth amid
the global downturn.
The network uses technology developed in co-operation with foreign firms such
as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.