Taiyuan, March 16 – The Ministry of Railways and Alstom signed a 350-million-euro contract on March 12. According to the contract, Alstom will provide 42-million-euro worth of equipment to build an electrified high-speed railway passenger line between Shijiazhuang of Hebei Province and Taiyuan of Shanxi Province (189 km long). The new passenger line will be completed before the end of 2008.

The speed of the trains on the passenger line will be 250 km per hour, thus traveler will be able to reach Taiyuan in 3 hours even if they start their journey from Beijing, rather than current 9 hours by train or 6 hours by coach

The high-speed passenger line will serve as an express way linking western and eastern China.

Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Passenger Line Corp will be responsible for the operation of the high-speed passenger line, and it is the first joint-venture railway company with the involvement of private capital. It can be estimated that there will be more private enterprises taking part in the building and operating of public utilities and big state projects.