China's national railway operator announced on Saturday that a newly constructed high-speed rail section in central China will start operating on Tuesday, Dec. 16, according to a Global Times report.
According to the China Railway Corporation (CRC), the 420-kilometer-long section built in Hunan Province makes up a portion of the high-speed rail system that connects Shanghai and Kunming in southwest China.
The CRC said that the section will reduce the travel time between the province's Changsha and Huaihua cities, from more than nine hours to just one-and-a-half hours.
Construction of the section, which has nine stations, began in 2010, with a test run conducted in November.
The section allows a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour, according to the CRC.
The CRC said that the rail section and another one between Changsha and Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province will help bring about economic development in the region through an improved railway transportation system.