New high-speed rail section starts operation in East China

NANJING -- A high-speed railway section in East China was put into operation Monday, the final part of a railway that extends over 3,400 km from northwest China to the east coast.

Construction of the section started in July 2017. It is part of a major east-west high-speed railway which links Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, with Lianyungang in the east.

The 185-km section, from Xuzhou city to the coastal city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, has six passenger stations along the route with a designed speed of 350 km per hour, according to China Railway Shanghai Group.

With the opening of the new section, it will take around one hour to travel from Xuzhou to Lianyungang, cutting the original travel time by half.

China's total railway mileage reached 146,300 km by the end of last year, with 37,900 km of high-speed rail, data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.