52.6 mln ride Beijing-Shanghai high-speed trains

Some 52.6 million passengers have travelled on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway since it opened to the public a year ago, latest data showed Saturday.

More than 56,000 trains traversed the railway in the first year of its operation, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Company said.

After three years of construction, the 1,318-km railway linking Beijing and Shanghai went into operation in June last year.

Trains were initially allowed to travel at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, which was later adjusted to 300 km per hour to allegedly reduce operation costs.

Built with an investment of 217.6 billion yuan (34.5 billion U.S. dollars), the railway has shortened travel time between the two cities to about five hours.