China to run world’s fastest bullet train from next month

Beijing, August 21

China will run the world's fastest bullet train between Beijing and Shanghai at 350 km per hour, covering the 1,250-km distance in just 4.5 hours from September 21, officials said on Monday.

Currently, it takes six hours to travel from the Chinese capital to the country's business hub.

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The new generation bullet train -- the Fuxing -- will cover the distance (equal to that between Jammu to Bhopal) in 4.5 hours from September 21.

It will be the world's fastest commercially-used bullet train, China Railway Corporation said.

China began running its first 350 km per hour high-speed train between Beijing and Tianjin in August in 2008 and opened at least three more such high-speed lines nationwide in the following years.

But it reduced the speed between 250 to 300 km per hour after a major accident in July 2011. Forty people were killed and over 190 injured when two high-speed trains travelling on the Yongtaiwen railway line collided on a viaduct in the suburbs of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, in July 2011.

The Fuxing trains were unveiled in June and are capable to clock top speeds of 400 kmph, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

On July 27, the Fuxing trains were tested for safety and reliability at maximum speed, it said.

From September 21, these trains will make seven round trips each day.

The trains are entirely designed and manufactured in China, led by the China Railway Corporation. China holds complete intellectual property rights on the trains.

China has the world's longest high-speed rail network of over 22,000 km, about 60 per cent of the world's total, the report said.

About one-thirds of China's high-speed railways were designed to allow trains to run at a speed of 350 kmph, according to He Huawu of the China Academy of Engineering. — PTI