International
China's first indigenously made 'bullet' train out by year-end

Beijing, Sept. 24 (PTI): China's first indigenously designed and manufactured passenger train with a speed of 300 km per hour, equal to that of the famous Japanese bullet train, will roll off the production line by the end of this year, the state media reported today.

The new high-speed trains, which can seat around 600 passengers, will run on the 115-km long Beijing-Tianjin rail route before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in August.

The rail journey between the two cities will be reduced from the current 70 minutes to around 30 minutes.

Production of the high-speed train is well underway and the first train will debut at the end of this year, a spokesman of the Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd., said.

Currently, China's fastest domestic trains run at a service speed of up to 250 km per hour.

The company will deliver 10 such trains to the Ministry of Railways in the first half of next year, Xinhua news agency reported.

China launched its sixth train speed boost on April 18 bringing the country more firmly into the era of high-speed train travel.

A Eurostar train shattered the record for the quickest rail journey between Paris and London when it travelled at 300 km per hour on the UK speed track last week.

French national railway's TGV bullet trains, currently the world's fastest, travel at a service speed of 320 km per hour.

China's planned Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev railway will allow trains to run at 450 km per hour.

International

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