China test runs world’s longest high-speed rail

China has successfully conducted a test run of the world's longest high-speed railway between Beijing and Guangzhou, ahead of the launch of the 2,298-km- long line on 26 December. Running at an average speed of 300 km per hour, it only took two-and-a-half hours for the train on Saturday to cover the 693 km distance from Beijing to Zhengzhou, the northern section of the whole route that links the country's capital and the southern economic hub. Zhou Li, director general of science and technology with the Ministry of Railways (MOR), also aboard the train, told reporters that he was confident in the country's railway technologies. ‘We will keep tracking the condition of equipment in real time and report potential risks immediately,’ Zhou said.

The railway authorities have taken a string of targeted measures to guarantee a safe trip, such as intensifying the maintenance of fixed equipment and mobile devices on board and improving the control system to address possible problems under extreme weather, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying. The measures government expect dispel safety concerns raised after a bullet train crash last year near the southern city of Wenzhou that left 40 people dead. According to an earlier announcement of the MOR, the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway will open on December 26 and is expected to cut the travel time to about 8 hours from the current 20-odd hours by traditional lines.