And they're off! June 30 start for Beijing service
By Dong Zhen, Zha Minjie and Winny Wang |
June 24, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Finally, it's official! China's railway ministry yesterday announced June 30 as the start date for the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed rail service. The first trains will leave both cities at 3pm that day.
Passengers will be able to buy tickets in advance, from 9am today, at prices ranging from 410 yuan to 1,750 yuan (US$270).
The service will be the first in Shanghai to offer paperless boarding, meaning that Chinese travelers holding the latest version of IDs need only scan their ID cards to get on the train.
Older versions of the ID cards doesn't work with the check-in scanner.
The Beijing-Tianjin high-speed link already uses paperless boarding.
However, the paperless service will not be available to foreigners, officials said. They will still need paper tickets before boarding.
But with their passports, they can purchase tickets from the national railway service's website, www.12306.cn.
Having obtained a voucher number, they can then go to designated ticket booths at the city's three railway stations or other outlets in the city to pick up tickets, officials said.
Railway officials say the new service will boost Shanghai's total rail capacity by 14 percent, or 270,000 passengers.
Some current train services will be cut after the opening of the new route, especially on the Shanghai-Nanjing line, and timetables will be updated.
"Locals should watch out for the changes, which would affect many of the current shuttle times," Zhu Wenzhong, Shanghai's chief railway official, said.
All the high-speed trains will arrive and leave from Hongqiao Railway Station, which will replace Shanghai Railway Station as the city's busiest railway terminal after July 1.
The earliest service to Beijing will leave the city at 7am and the latest at 5:55pm, officials said.
About 54 percent of the new bullet trains will travel at speeds of up to 300kph, the rest will operate at 250kph, officials said.
The travel time to Beijing's South Railway Station, where the line terminates, will be 4 hours 48 minutes, 4 hours 55 minutes or 5.5 hours, depending on the number of stops.
The 250kph service, which stops at more stations, will take just over eight hours.
The railway authority yesterday also announced a 5 percent reduction in ticket prices on the Shanghai-Nanjing bullet train. A second-class ticket at present costs 146 yuan.
Officials wanted to lower fares on the older service to avoid losing too many passengers to the new one.
Railway officials also said they had signed an agreement with China Eastern Airlines to integrate services in future. An initial program would allow passengers booking airline tickets to and from Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong, to also book train tickets between Shanghai and cities in the Yangtze Delta Region.
Ma Xulun, general manager of China Eastern Airlines, said the high-speed service was expected to take 15 percent to 20 percent of passengers from domestic airlines initially.
But after six months, air passenger volume on the route would recover to the same level as before, Ma said.
Passengers will be able to buy tickets in advance, from 9am today, at prices ranging from 410 yuan to 1,750 yuan (US$270).
The service will be the first in Shanghai to offer paperless boarding, meaning that Chinese travelers holding the latest version of IDs need only scan their ID cards to get on the train.
Older versions of the ID cards doesn't work with the check-in scanner.
The Beijing-Tianjin high-speed link already uses paperless boarding.
However, the paperless service will not be available to foreigners, officials said. They will still need paper tickets before boarding.
But with their passports, they can purchase tickets from the national railway service's website, www.12306.cn.
Having obtained a voucher number, they can then go to designated ticket booths at the city's three railway stations or other outlets in the city to pick up tickets, officials said.
Railway officials say the new service will boost Shanghai's total rail capacity by 14 percent, or 270,000 passengers.
Some current train services will be cut after the opening of the new route, especially on the Shanghai-Nanjing line, and timetables will be updated.
"Locals should watch out for the changes, which would affect many of the current shuttle times," Zhu Wenzhong, Shanghai's chief railway official, said.
All the high-speed trains will arrive and leave from Hongqiao Railway Station, which will replace Shanghai Railway Station as the city's busiest railway terminal after July 1.
The earliest service to Beijing will leave the city at 7am and the latest at 5:55pm, officials said.
About 54 percent of the new bullet trains will travel at speeds of up to 300kph, the rest will operate at 250kph, officials said.
The travel time to Beijing's South Railway Station, where the line terminates, will be 4 hours 48 minutes, 4 hours 55 minutes or 5.5 hours, depending on the number of stops.
The 250kph service, which stops at more stations, will take just over eight hours.
The railway authority yesterday also announced a 5 percent reduction in ticket prices on the Shanghai-Nanjing bullet train. A second-class ticket at present costs 146 yuan.
Officials wanted to lower fares on the older service to avoid losing too many passengers to the new one.
Railway officials also said they had signed an agreement with China Eastern Airlines to integrate services in future. An initial program would allow passengers booking airline tickets to and from Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong, to also book train tickets between Shanghai and cities in the Yangtze Delta Region.
Ma Xulun, general manager of China Eastern Airlines, said the high-speed service was expected to take 15 percent to 20 percent of passengers from domestic airlines initially.
But after six months, air passenger volume on the route would recover to the same level as before, Ma said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
