A new high-speed railway linking Xuzhou and Lianyungang, two cities in east China’s Jiangsu province, began operation on Feb.8, cctv.com reported.

The first Fuxing bullet train runs through a bridge on the Xuzhou-Lianyungang high-speed railway, Feb. 8. (Photo/Liu Xin)

Cutting the travel time between the two cities from more than 2 hours to one hour, the high-speed railway, with a length of 185 kilometers, has a designed speed of 350 kph.

The opening of the new route marks the full operation of the 3,422-km high-speed railway linking Lianyungang and Urumqi in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the longest west-east train line of China’s “Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal” high-speed railway network.

The new railroad has created a traffic circle of less than two hours by high-speed between northern Jiangsu and the province’s capital city Nanjing, Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province and Ji’nan in east China’s Shandong province, said Xu Guang, the new route’s chief designer with China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd. under China Railway Construction Corporation Limited.

(Photo/CCTV.com)

Xu added that the route bears significant importance for improving China’s high-speed railway network and promoting integrated development of northern Jiangsu and the Yangtze River Delta region.