Two high-speed passenger railway lines linking east China's Fujian Province with neighboring Zhejiang Province went into operation Monday, which greatly shorten the travel time from mountainous Fujian to the Yangtze River Delta.

The Fuzhou-Wenzhou line shortens the travel time from 15 hours to 100 minutes. Trains can run at 250 km per hour on the line, said Gao An'gang, official with Nanchang Railway Bureau. which is responsible for the construction.

The other line links Wenzhou with Ningbo cities, both in Zhejiang.

The two lines, about 580 km in total, began construction in 2004 and 2005 respectively. The railways, linked with lines to Shanghai, also cut the travel time from Fuzhou to Shanghai from 11 hours to about five hours.

Fujian, on the western side of the Taiwan Strait, is an important destination for Taiwan residents when visiting the mainland. However, road traffic from Fujian to other provinces has been congested. The new lines will help tackle this problem.

The railway official said that another four high-speed railway lines are under construction in Fujian to link cities including Xiamen and Putian in two to three years.

(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2009)