Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail to fully operate at end of June

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will open and begin operations by the end of June 2011, and the Beijing Railway Administration will simultaneously launch the telephone booking and Internet booking services, said Huang Guizhang, NPC member and president of the Beijing Railway Administration, during a group discussion at the Fourth Session of the 11th National People's Congress on March 7.
The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway runs through seven provinces and cities, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai. It is 1,318 kilometers long and the laying of the entire line was completed in November 2010. The design speed of the railway stands at 350 kilometers per hour and it is the world's longest high-speed railway line constructed in a single phase.
After the opening of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the rail travel time between the two cities will be shortened from more than nine hours to about four hours.
Huang said that the Beijing railway service quality will also have profound changes along with the opening of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. Judging from the operation experience of the Beijing-Tianjin inter-city high-speed railway, passengers prefer self-service, such as vending machines.
Therefore, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will simultaneously open telephone booking and Internet booking functions, and comprehensively upgrade services of related stations.
By Li Yancheng, People's Daily Online
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