China begins test to restore bullet train speed

Beijing July 27 (IANS) China began test on Thursday to restore the maximum speed of bullet train on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway track to 350 km per hour six years after it was reduced to 300 kmh.

Departing Beijing South Railway Station at 8.38 a.m. a Fuxing bullet train will complete the round-trip from Beijing to Xuzhou some 700 km away within about four hours reports Xinhua news agency.

The speed hike will cut the Beijing-Shanghai journey to about 4.5 hours about half an hour faster than the current minimum between the two cities.

If successful the test will pave way for a new schedule on the Beijing-Shanghai railway starting in mid-September.

Connecting the Chinese capital with its major financial and trade hub the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the busiest in the country carrying over 100 million passengers a year.

China has the world s longest high-speed rail network 22 000 km at the end of last year about 60 per cent of the world s total.

Chinese bullet trains have been bought by countries including Indonesia and Russia.

--IANS
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