Fast and clean electricity-powered trains will soon run from Shanghai to Beijing and Hangzhou as a railway network upgrade and conversion to electricity nears completion.

The new trains are scheduled to start running in July and will be like metro trains, except that locomotives will be much more powerful for higher speed, the Shanghai Railway Administration Bureau said yesterday.

The current top speed of existing diesel trains is 160 kilometers per hour. The top speed of the new trains was not disclosed. The changeover to electric trains with overhead power cables is expected to be gradual.

The Shanghai-Beijing line is one of the country's major railway arteries and is running at full capacity of passengers and cargo. An immediate speedup of the trains is not expected, said railway administration officials.

The conversion project began last July in cooperation with rail authorities in Beijing and Jinan in Shandong Province. Fifteen electric transformer stations and 30 transformers have been installed. Checks are underway.

The electrified railway will be more environmentally friendly and produce fewer emissions than the existing diesel trains. But it poses a safety challenge because of elevated power lines, similar to those of the trolley bus system.

The upgrade will lay a foundation for the sixth speed increase for national railway networks since 1997, when the first major speed increase improved efficiency.

The Ministry of Railway approved electric power line between Beijing and Shanghai since the diesel line has been running at full capacity with no room for power expansion.

The 1,464-kilometer line between the two cities accounts for 2.2 percent of the total length of China's railways, but it carries nearly 9 percent of the freight and 12.4 percent of the passengers.

A key 600-kilometer section is under the jurisdiction of the rail administration that covers Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2006)