Business News

Chinese bullet trains make debut

Jan 28, 2007, 11:50 GMT

Beijing - China's first high-speed 'bullet' trains made their debut on Sunday between Shanghai and the nearby eastern cities of Ningbo, Nanjing and Hangzhou, state media said. The trains currently operate at a maximum of 160 kilometres per hour but are capable of a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour, the official Xinhua news agency said. The locomotives and carriages were developed by China's ministry of railways and built by the Qingdao-based Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock company using technology based on the Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains. They are designed mainly to run between Shanghai and Beijing, cutting the fastest travel time on the key route from nine hours to as little as five hours when they begin operating at top speed in April. Initial runs used two eight-carriage trains linked together to create trains capable of carrying 1,220 passengers, the agency said. The bullet trains are scheduled to begin operating on the Shanghai-Beijing route during the Chinese lunar new year holiday, which begins in mid-February. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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