Imagine traveling by rail between Shanghai and Hangzhou in just over 30 minutes ... this is no dream, as the wheels are in motion.

Construction of the high-speed link between the two cities will start next year, the Hangzhou-based Metropolis Express reported on Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Railways.

The 158-kilometer line, which would start at the Hangzhou Eastern Railway Station in the provincial capital of Zhejiang and end in Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport area, would reduce traveling time by nearly 90 minutes.

Trains would travel up to 300 kilometers an hour on the 27.6-billion-yuan (US$4.03 billion) line.

There would be five stops along the line at stations in Zhejiang's Yuhang, Tongxiang and Jiaxing cities and at Shanghai's Songjiang District and Fengjing Town.

The report did not say when construction would be completed.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou link would connect to the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed railway at Shanghai's Hongqiao Transport Hub and passengers could also transfer to the Hangzhou-Ningbo railway link at the Hangzhou Eastern Station.

The Hongqiao Transport Hub will serve as a transfer station for the city's Hongqiao International Airport, a Maglev station, at least three Metro stations and bus stations.

China started building its first high-speed rail link, the Shanghai-Beijing line, on April 18. Travel on this link will take under five hours, seven hours off the present time.

The new Shanghai-Beijing rail link, scheduled for completion in five years, is the biggest construction investment since the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

Trains will travel up to 350 kmh on the 1,318-kilometer line, which will be the fastest high-speed railway in the world.

Twenty-one stations will be built along the route that runs across Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu provinces and ends in Shanghai's Hongqiao airport area.

The railway will connect China's Circum-Bohai Sea Region and the Yangtze Delta Region, which covers 6.5 percent of the country's territory and a quarter of the population.

China also plans to start construction on the 42-billion-yuan Nanjing-Hangzhou intercity railway this year, which will reduce traveling time from Shanghai to Ningbo to 90 minutes from 3.5 hours.

In March, the country's economic planning authority approved a 559-kilometer, high-speed railway linking Nanning City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province.

(Shanghai Daily July 16, 2008)