After nearly three years of construction, the 91-kilometer-long intercity railway connecting Beijing and Xiong'an New Area, north China's Hebei province, opened to traffic on Dec. 27.

Photo taken on Dec. 27 shows the Xiong'an Railway Station in Xiong'an New Area, north China's Hebei province. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

With a designed top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, it has cut the travel time between the Beijing West Railway Station and Xiong'an New Area to about 50 minutes, and that between the Beijing Daxing International Airport, a station along the railway, and Xiong'an to about 19 minutes.

As another intelligent high-speed railway in China, the intercity railway has adopted many key technologies, achieving more than 70 innovative results.

The intercity railway has employed Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology, the first-ever application of BIM in railway industry, and realized 3D and intelligent management throughout the full life cycle concerning design, construction and operation, said Liu Weiqun, chairman of China Railway Design Corporation.

Based on the BIM technology, the railway has made a series of achievements such as automatic rebar processing and intelligent compaction of the roadbed, Liu added.

While improving the construction efficiency and quality with digital designs, the railway also pursues environmentally-friendly, green and energy-efficient construction.

For example, it has set up a fully enclosed noise barrier that stretches for nearly 850 meters, which reduces the noise of the trains to below 20 decibels, lessening the inconvenience for the residential areas along the way.

The Xiong'an Railway Station has also applied photovoltaic power generation on its roof, which could save 30 percent of electric energy.

According to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., 16 pairs of high-speed trains will be put in operation along the track for now, with slight adjustments expected in the near future.