CHINA: The Rizhao to Qufu section of the Rizhao to Lankao Passenger-Dedicated Line opened for revenue services on November 26.
Crossing the south of Shandong province from east to west, the 235 km long line designed for 350 km/h operation connects the port of Rizhao on the Yellow Sea coast with Qufu, home of Confucius and a major tourist destination.
There are eight stations, with the initial service of nine trains per day in each direction scheduled to be increased to 14 in the near future. The fastest Rizhao to Qufu journey time is now 1 h 14 min, down from 3 h 13 mins by the conventional line.
Construction of this section of the corridor was launched on May 31 2017. To the west, the soon-to-be completed Qufu – Hezi and Hezi – Lankao sections will take the total length of the route to 494 km.
