China raises speed of bullet train

BEIJING

China increased yesterday the maximum speed of bullet trains on the Beijing-Shanghai line to 350 kilometers per hour, six years after a fatal accident led to a speed cap.

The speed limit had been reduced to 300 kilometers per hour after 40 people died in a high-speed train crash near Wenzhou in July 2011.

The acceleration cuts the 1,318-kilometre (819-mile) Beijing-Shanghai journey to 4 hours and 28 minutes, saving passengers nearly an hour.

Starting on Sept. 21, a total of 14 trains were running between Beijing and Shanghai at the higher speed daily, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

“These trains are so popular that the tickets for today already sold out a week ago,” Xinhua cited Huang Xin, an official with the China Railway Corporation, as saying.

The connection between the two metropolises is one of the country’s busiest, carrying more than 100 million passengers a year. China’s high-speed rail network is the largest in the world.