Crew members of the first operation of Fuxing bullet train CR400AF pose for photos in front of the trains at a maintenance station of the railway car depot in west China's Chongqing Municipality, Dec. 23, 2020. Fuxing bullet train CR400AF, assigned to Chongqing Railway for the first time, made debut in Chongqing on Wednesday, expected to start operation Thursday with the service from Shapingba Station in Chongqing to Chengdu East station in Chengdu of west China's Sichuan Province. The trip between the two cities will be shortened from 78 minutes to 62 minutes. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

Bullet trains will start to run in China's Tibet Autonomous Region by July 1, and the China-Laos railway will open in December of this year, the country's railway operator said on Saturday, revealing some of the major milestones planned for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

A 435-km railway link to the regional capital of Lhasa will run Fuxing bullet trains powered by both internal-combustion and electric engines, Lu Dongfu, board chairman of China State Railway Group Corp and a deputy to the National People's Congress, said on the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions.

Fuxing's upcoming service in the Tibet Autonomous Region marks the opening of high-speed train services in all Chinese mainland provincial-level localities.

When the China-Laos railway is completed at the end of 2021, direct service will link Vientiane, Laos and Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Already having the world's most developed high-speed railway network, China aims to extend the total length in operation to around 50,000 kilometers by 2025, up from 37,900 kilometers by the end of 2020, according to Lu.

The high-speed railway network will cover 98 percent of cities with over 500,000 residents, he added.

Global Times