The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will start operations in mid-June 2011, said Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun.

Construction of the 1,318km railway began in April 2008 with a total investment estimated at Rmb220.9bn. The line is expected to cut travel time between China’s two leading cities to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.

Liu said the combined length of China’s operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358km by the end of 2010. This is set to rise to 13,000km by the end of 2011, and 16,000km by 2015.