Work will start in the first half of 2009 on a high-speed railway connecting Tianjin, a port city on the Bohai Sea, and Baoding, a city in central Hebei Province, it was announced at a meeting on Saturday.

The meeting, in the Binhai New Area, was attended by officials from the Ministry of Railways, Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province.

The line will be 145 km long, with trains running up to 250 km per hour, according to the Ministry of Railways. The link will cost 24 billion yuan (about US$3.52 billion), but no detailed financial plans are yet available.

There is no rail link at present, only a freeway. The line will create a route linking Tianjin, the largest port city in north China, and the vast central and western areas of China, said a ministry official.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2008)