China's northern passenger railway on trial run

TAIYUAN, Jan. 1 (Chinese media) -- A 250 km-per-hour passenger railway between the

coal-rich Shanxi Province and neighboring Hebei province went into trial

operation Thursday.

The 190 kilometer rail line links Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, cities of the

northern provinces. It is estimated to carry 15 million one-way passengers a

year in 2020 and more than 25 million a year in 2030.

The railway would distribute the passenger flow and let the original

passenger-goods mixed lines carry more coal from Shanxi.

The 12.64-billion-yuan project (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) began

construction in 2005. The line runs through 94 bridges and 32 tunnels, including

China's longest mountain tunnel with a length of 27.8 km.

Another five high-speed passenger lines, mostly in southern China, will go

into operation in 2009, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

The MOR plans to have 120,000 km of lines in service by 2020, of which

16,000 km would be exclusively for passenger services. At present, China has

more than 79,000 km of rail lines. To meet the 2020 target will cost about 5

trillion yuan, the ministry said.