[News]China's First High-speed Train Takes the Rail

mingzi

A train designed to run at a speed of 200 km per hour left east China's Shanghai for Suzhou early Wednesday morning, ushering in a high-speed era for the world's fastest growing economy.


Nationwide, 140 pairs of high-speed trains with a speed of 200 km per hour or a faster speed will begin to hit the railways on Wednesday. The number will increase to 257 by the end of this year.


Numbered D460, the train left Shanghai at 5:38 a.m. and is expected to arrive in Suzhou 39 minutes later.


Wednesday marks the the beginning of the sixth \"speed boost\" of Chinese railways, which has been hard-pressed to cope with the country's hunger for bigger transport capacity.


Chinese railway officials said last year, China fulfilled a quarter of the world's total railway transport volume on railways accounting for only 6 percent of the world's total length.


\"The sixth speed lift will boost passenger capacity and cargo capacity by over 18 percent and over 12 percent respectively,\" said Hu Yadong, vice-minister of railways.
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