(Yicai Global) Dec. 30 -- The Yancheng-Nantong high-speed railway was put into service today, the latest section to be completed of a trunk rail line that will run the length of China’s east coast.

It connects the major port city of Lianyungang in the north of southeastern Jiangsu province with Shanghai by high-speed rail link for the first time, the China Railway Shanghai Group said. And it extends the Shanghai-Suzhou-Nantong high-speed railway line that opened in July further up the eastern coast.

Bullet trains can coast along the 158-kilometer-long track at speeds of 300 kilometers an hour, slashing the travel time from Yancheng to Shanghai by one third to two hours and seven minutes. And more than halving the journey from Lianyungang to Shanghai to just under four hours.

The railway line services six stations. There will be six pairs of bullet trains a day at first and this might be increased to 47 pairs in the new year, CRSG said.

China plans to build a grid of eight railway lines running north to south and eight running east to west by 2030. One of these is the eastern coastal railway. When completed, it will run from Liaoning province in the northeast to Guangdong province in the southeast, linking the Bohai Sea city cluster, the Yangtze River Delta city cluster and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor