China's first high-speed railway line is to be kicked off and enter full construction at this yearend, Hong Kong based Wen Wai Po reported lately.

Construction projects of this railway line, which runs through eastern, central and western China, have been gradually activated. Upon completion in 2020, it will reduce the Chengdu-Shanghai traveling time to 10 hours.

It is learned that the double-track passenger line runs through Shanghai, Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu, with a designed speed of 200km per hour. This is the shortest route linking Shanghai and Chengdu, experts said.

At present, it generally needs 40 hours and 22 minutes, or at least some 35 hours, to travel from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, to Shanghai by train. The time is expected to be cut to 10-15 hours.

There are now two lines connecting Shanghai and Chengdu, the southern line (Zhejiang-Jiangxi) and the northern line (Lianyungang-Lanzhou), which are of long distance and transportation time.

Since highway and air transportation are inherently limited in capacity, and water transport on the Yantze is withdrawing from the conventional passenger transportation market, high-speed railway has become the top choice for its being safe, fast, comfortable and all-weathered. The Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu high-speed railway will become a new line linking China's eastern costal regions, central and southwest areas.

By People's Daily Online