World’s longest fast train line opens in China

BEIJING - The Associated Press

The high speed train that runs on the new 2,298-kilometre line between Beijing and Guangzhou runs into Xuchang East Station in Xuchang, central China's Henan province on December 26, 2012. AFP photo

China has opened the world’s longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,298 kilometers from the country’s capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in the Pearl River delta in southern China.

The line officially opened Wednesday when a train departed from Beijing at 9 a.m. for Guangzhou. Another train left Guangzhou for Beijing an hour later.

Trains on this high-speed line will initially run at 300 kph with a total travel time of about eight hours. Before, the fastest time between the two cities by train was more than 20 hours.

Railway is an essential part in China’s transportation system, and its government plans to build a grid of high-speed railways with four east-west lines and four north-south lines by 2020.