The high-speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai that will use the country's own highly advanced technology will start laying its tracks within the year, the Ministry of Railways announced yesterday.

With preparation work already under way, the 1,318-kilometre passenger line is expected to begin operation by 2010 when the World Expo will be held in Shanghai, the ministry announced in a press release.

Upon completion, it will take only five hours to travel between Beijing and Shanghai, 9 hours less than the current travel time.

The existing Beijing-Shanghai railway will mainly be used for freight transport by then, with an estimated one-way transport capacity of at least 130 million tons each year.

The ministry called the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway "the most technology-intensive railway with the largest investment" among all the railways to be built before 2020 under the ministry's plan.

It will also be China's "first globally advanced high-speed railway."

The ministry wants to localize the production of high-speed locomotive units by adapting advanced technologies of foreign countries, and co-operating with these countries in design and production.

Through the construction of this railway, China aims to build up its own high-speed railway technology system.

The Beijing-Shanghai project was first proposed in 1994, but it was not approved until earlier this year because of a heated dispute over what technology should be used.

Various parties finally reached a consensus to use high-speed wheel track technology instead of a maglev, which uses a magnetized track allowing the train to travel without friction.

The technology will be "our own technology," according to the ministry's release.

With a designed maximum speed of 350 kilometres per hour, the passenger line is expected to alleviate the pressure on the existing Beijing-Shanghai railway.

Official statistics show the railway is dealing with a railway transport density four times that of the country's current average.

As a result, the overburdened railway has curbed the development of China's two economic engines, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim, which the railway links.

The new line, linking three municipalities and four provinces, runs almost side by side with the existing one. Along the line there will be 21 stations.

"The 21 stations will certainly include the three municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and two provincial capitals Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and Jinan in Shandong Province," said Li Qiang, information officer with the ministry.

But he refused to disclose where the rest of the stations will be located.

In the first stage, high-speed trains will run on the line at a maximum speed of 300 kilometres per hour.

"Trains with a speed no less than 200 kilometres per hour can also use the line," said Li.

Source: China Daily