High-speed backbone celebrates 10th anniversary

The world's longest high-speed railway, which runs for 2,298 kilometers linking China's capital Beijing with the economic hub of Guangzhou in the south, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Monday, with 1.69 billion passenger trips made, according to the China State Railway Group.

The vertical line linking northern and southern China is one of the country's main high-speed railway corridors, and passes through six provincial-level regions including Beijing and the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong, and links the national capital with five provincial capitals — Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Guangzhou.

The line opened on Dec 26, 2012, with a designed speed of 300 km/h to 350 km/h, and slashed travel time between Beijing and Guangzhou from more than 40 hours to about eight.

As the backbone of China's high-speed railway system, it connects to 12 other high-speed lines, making travel to a number of cities more convenient.

Over the course of a decade, it has become one of the busiest high-speed lines in the country. Another busy line, the Beijing-Shanghai HSR has handled 1.35 billion passenger trips in 10 years of operation.

The daily number of bullet train services leaving and arriving at the Beijing West Railway Station on the Beijing-Guangzhou HSR has increased from 120 at the beginning of operations, to 215 under the latest schedule.

The fast and frequent service has benefited passengers of all kinds, including business travelers, commuters and tourists with special needs.

Wu Di is one of them.

Working in the customer service area, Wu travels back and forth between Beijing and Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, one of the stops on the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway.

"It takes a little more than 2 hours and is much more convenient than air travel," he said.

Since June 20, speed along the section of the line between Beijing and Wuhan has increased to 350 km/h, up from the previous maximum of 310 km/h, cutting travel time between Beijing and a number of major cities in the south, including Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou and Wuhan.

The China Railway Beijing Group, the regional railway operator, has been running faster passenger trains between Beijing and Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, since Monday.

According to a new railway schedule that went into operation on Monday, there will be 20 faster services every day, reducing travel time between the two cities to an hour.

The upgrading of bullet trains makes the trip safer, greener and more comfortable, and showcases China's development of bullet train design and manufacturing.

When the line opened in 2012, the Harmony CRH 380 model bullet train was in operation. Now, domestically designed and made Fuxing smart bullet trains also ply the line.

Compared to the Harmony model, the Fuxing smart bullet train has more than 2,700 detection points throughout the train to carry out real-time monitoring of operation, said Wang Guanwei, an onboard technician at the bullet train department of the China Railway Beijing Group.

"The Fuxing's monitoring system can transmit a great quantity of data from detection points, generally covering all key systems affecting operation," he said.

Sun Mengnan was an attendant on the first bullet train along the Beijing-Guangzhou HSR in 2012.Ten years later, she still works on a bullet train on the line, but now as chief conductor.

"Most passengers were business people 10 years ago, but now more kinds of travelers choose to take the line, including commuters, students and migrant workers," she said.

More services are now available onboard, including ordering food online.

"Travelers can scan a code on the back of the seat and place an order. Food will be sent to their seat later," she said.