The express trains offering sleepers will not only run faster than normal express trains between Shanghai and Beijing but ensure a more comfortable ride because of their improved design, the Shanghai railway administration said on Tuesday.

The country's first bullet trains to offer sleeping compartments will come into service on Sunday between Shanghai and Beijing and between Beijing and Hangzhou in neighboring Zhejiang Province. A trip from Shanghai to Beijing will take 9 hours and 59 minutes, 1 hour and 29 minutes shorter than the previous fastest non-stop express.

The new trains will each have 16 carriages with a total capacity of 630 passengers.

Thirteen of the carriages will offer sleeping berths for 520 passengers, while the other two carriages will provide normal seating for 110 people.

Each sleeper carriage will have 10 separate compartments.

One carriage will be used as a restaurant and pub.

Touch control panels and reading lamps are installed at each berth and each sleeper will also have an LCD TV installed with passengers able to use headphones to watch TV without disturbing others.

Sockets on all carriages allow recharging of electronic appliances while mothers will find a baby-care table in each of the toilets on board.

There will be service-call buttons available inside the toilets and each sleeper compartment.

Two trains, the D306 and D302, will leave Shanghai for Beijing every day starting on Sunday at 9:41 PM and 9:46 PM. Their counterpart trains, the D301 and D305, head for Shanghai from Beijing at 9:39 PM and 9:44 PM daily, officials said.

The trains will be less noisy and run much more smoothly than previous trains, the railway officials said.

An upper berth costs 655 yuan and a lower sleeper 730 yuan for a single journey, said the railway operators.

(Shanghai Daily December 17, 2008)