Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    GUANGZHOU Railway Group Corp. will open two pairs of high-speed trains between Shenzhen and Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, on Sept. 16, when the Nanchang-Changsha section of the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed rail is scheduled to open.

    Each day, the G634 will leave Shenzhen North Railway Station at 4:32 p.m. and arrive at Nanchang West Station at 9:44 p.m., while G638 will depart at 6:38 p.m. and arrive at 11:32 p.m.

    The whole trip will take about five hours and an economy-class seat will cost 546.5 yuan (US$87). A first-class seat will cost 868 yuan.

    The railway group now is operating D2322 from Shenzhen to Nanchang on the Xiamen-Shenzhen line. The whole trip takes eight hours and 43 minutes. The fares are cheaper, at 423 yuan and 352.5 yuan for first-class and economy-class seats, respectively.

    The opening of the new rail will cut the trip between Shenzhen and Nanchang by three hours and 49 minutes.

    The 342-km Nanchang-Changsha section has seven stations and is designed for trains to run at 350 km/h.

    The overall rail network is expected to further improve when construction wraps up on the Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-Speed Railway, part of a proposed rapid transit system linking Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta to Nanchang.

    The project is set to be completed in 2020, according to the Guangdong government’s plan.

    The travel time from Shenzhen to Nanchang by high-speed rail is expected to be four hours after the new line is put into service. The line, which totals 880 kilometers, goes through Shenzhen, Huizhou, Heyuan, Ganzhou, Ji’an and Nanchang.