BEIJING -- China's railway sector invested 77.4 billion yuan (US$10.2 billion) in fixed assets in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increment of 1.1 billion yuan, or 1.5 percent, sources with the Ministry of Railway said on Tuesday.

In comparison, input in capital construction went down 1.1 billion yuan, or 1.7 percent, to 61.1 billion yuan in the six-month period.

The sources said the slight decline indicated more efforts had been shifted to upgrading projects since the beginning of this year.

The sector launched its sixth speed boom on April 18, which helped boost trains' speed to 200 kilometers per hour on upgraded tracks. The upgrading projects cost 26 billion yuan in total, or four million yuan for every kilometer of the tracks revamped.