Recently, track laying officially began on the Yunnan section of the Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Passenger Railway, which will lay the foundation for the opening to traffic of the High-speed Railway by the end of next year.

The plan calls 382.9 kilometers of through tracks and 4.43 km of station tracks to be laid. It is understood that the track laying work is expected to complete in the first half of 2016, whereupon integrated testing and commissioning will commence.

The Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Passenger Railway is one of the high-speed passenger rail corridors included in China's Medium and Long-term Railway Network Planning. It is 2,264 kilometers long and has a design speed of 300 to 350 kilometers per hour. The Yunnan Section is expected to be operational by the end of next year. By then the travel time between Kunming and Shanghai will be reduced from the current more than 40 hours to about ten hours.