Full steam ahead for rail plan

The development of China's railway network will include the construction of 548 railway stations within the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), a senior official from the Ministry of Railways, said yesterday.

"Twenty-eight new stations have already been completed, 58 are under construction and 210 are in the design stage," Zheng Jian, the ministry's deputy chief engineer, told China Daily.

Last month, Beijing South - the largest in the country - and Tianjin railway stations opened for business at the two ends of a new high-speed intercity service, he said.