Rail services continue to pick up speed

China's first genuinely fast locomotive capable of traveling at 300 kilometers per hour is scheduled to enter service at the end of the year, Xinhua learned  from the Ministry of Railways.

The CRH-3, the latest model in the country's China Railway High-speed (CRH) Series, is expected to come off the production line at the end of the year.

About eighty percent of its parts and components are domestically produced.

The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed track and the Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger-only route will be the first to see the CRH-3 as China moves resolutely into the era of high-speed train travel.

Zhang Shuguang, chief of the Ministry's Transportation Bureau, said that 700 CRH trains would be put into service by 2010.

About 52 of the earlier, slower CRH series -- able to travel at200 kilometers per hour -- are already in service.

Another 68 high-powered locomotives are pulling cargo trains at120 kilometers per hour on the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou lines, he said.

"By the end of this year, 160 CRH motor unit trains and 448 high-power electric locomotives will be in operation," Zhang said.

The CRH series includes the CRH-1, CRH-2, CRH-5 and CRH-3. Each of them has been developed by local companies and foreign partners from Canada, Japan, France and Germany.