A high-speed railway that will cut the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to four hours will open a year ahead of schedule in 2011, state media said Monday.
Once operational, the line is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year — double the current capacity on the 1,318-kilometre (820-mile) route, which now takes 10 hours, the China Daily reported, citing railway officials.
No one at the railways ministry was immediately available to comment on the report, which did not say why the project was ahead of schedule.
Beijing has an ambitious rail development programme aimed at increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres by 2020, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.
The expanded network will include 50,000 kilometres of high-speed rail, compared with the current 6,550 kilometres, the China Daily said.
Work on the Beijing-Shanghai line started in April 2008 with a planned investment of 220.9 billion yuan (32.3 billion dollars) and so far more than half has been spent on it, it said in earlier reports.
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