Construction of a 115-kilometer-long track, China’s first ever city-to-city commuter express passenger rail route, linking Beijing and Tianjin, is scheduled to start in July.Sources from the Chinese Ministry of Railways said the agreement on building the commuter rail route has been signed by the ministry and the municipal governments of Beijing and Tianjin in Beijing.According to the agreement, construction of the rail line is expected to be finished at the end of 2007 and to go into service in July 2008.

At 200 km per hour, the trip from Beijing to Tianjin will take approximately 40 minutes only, some 30 minutes less than the current time, a source with the ministry acknowledged.Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said the construction of the commuter express rail route is of vital importance to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and to the development of the Bohai Sea rim.

A series of new technologies plan to be introduced for the new rail line, to make it a showcase of high-standard express passenger track in the country, said Liu.The central government, or the State Council, decided to build express train tracks in China’s three most populous regions, the area around Beijing and Tianjin, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl (Zhujiang) River Delta.

［辅助阅读］据悉，京津城际轨道交通系统将于今年7月开工建设，计划2007年年底建成，2008年7月投入运营。乘坐这趟城际列车，京津之间单程只需40分钟左右，比现在缩短了30分钟。