China launches world's fastest train

Beijing, Dec 27 : China launched the world's fastest train on the weekend, running from Wuhan to Guangzhou, local media reported.

With an average speed of 350 km per hour, the train would take only 3 hours to complete the journey of 1,068.6 km, compared with the previous 10.5 hours, a Wuhan railway official told the government-run China Daily.

The new high-speed service uses technology developed in cooperation with foreign firms including Siemens, which provided technology for the railway's command centre's signal system.

The new service is expected to impact on the number of passengers travelling between the two cities by air.

Some airlines, including China Southern, have already halved the price of tickets on the route, the official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.