Backed by 4 trillion yuan in capital from the central budget, the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway which runs through northern China, the Central Plains and the Pearl River Delta will be completed eight years ahead of schedule. Huang Qiang, CPPCC member and leading expert of the China Academy of Railway Sciences, told this to Hong Kong newspaper Wenweipo on March 9. It is expected that the goal of "departure in the evening and arrival by morning" will be achieved between Beijing and Hong Kong by 2012. The trip from Hong Kong to Beijing will take only 10 hours.

After the central government announced the 4 trillion yuan investment plan, the railway sector, known as the "railway boss," received enormous financial support. Huang expressed that the 4 trillion yuan investment from the central budget will be a direct driving force to greatly accelerate the construction of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway. According to medium and long term railway construction planning, the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway was expected to be finished in 2020, but according to the current situation, it will be completed ahead of schedule in 2012.

The total length of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway is to be 2,240 kilometers in length, and will run parallel to the existing Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. It is said that the rails and trains adopted for the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway are the same as those used in the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway which opened in 2008. The railway has a double track design, with a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour. The trains used will be China's independently developed multiple unit train Hexie CRH3. The combination of such tracks and trains once reached a speed of 394.3 kilometers per hour, the highest speed achieved among all trains operating in the world at present.

Huang said it will take at most 10 hours to travel from Beijing to Hong Kong on the nonstop high-speed railway. "I think the trip is actually less than 10 hours, just enough time for a night's sleep."

By People's Daily Online