A new railway timetable will come into effect in the Yangtze River Delta region starting Jan 26, in line with the nationwide schedule adjustment, China Railway Shanghai Group said.

One of the major adjustments involves the departure times of the flagship high-speed trains operating between Shanghai and Beijing which stop only at major stations.

The departure time of the first train of the day will be moved forward from 7 am to 6:43 am at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, while the final service, now renumbered from G28 to G32, will leave at 7:25 pm instead of the previous 6:52 pm.

The number of train pairs operating between Beijing and Shanghai has increased from 47 to 48, including two newly added pairs of "major-stations-only" express trains.

On Jan 12, the final Z99 train service between Shanghai and Hong Kong departed from Shanghai Railway Station. Following the timetable adjustment, Z99 will be replaced by D99, an overnight sleeper service departing from Shanghai South Railway Station, a change expected to further improve the passenger experience.

The launch of two new services (G384 and G895) and the renaming of G99 to G901 will bring the total number of daily trains from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station to Hong Kong to three.

After the new timetable takes effect, Shanghai will also introduce direct high-speed rail services to Luohe in Henan province, Zhanjiang in Guangdong province, and Yan'an in Shaanxi province.

Under the new plan, both passenger and freight train volumes in the Yangtze River Delta region will be reaching record highs with 1,431.5 pairs of passenger trains, 24 more pairs than before the adjustment, and 1,371 pairs of freight trains, an increase of four pairs.

Source: Shanghai Observer