SHIJIAZHUANG - Operation started Thursday on a 298 kilometer high-speed rail way linking Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, to Jinan, capital of Shandong Province in east China.

The line is a key high-speed rail line running between the east and the west. It creates a bridge between two key north-to-south lines, the Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai express rail lines, and further integrates China's express rail network.

Trains run at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Travel time of a Shijiazhuang-Jinan journey is cut to two hours and nine minutes from three hours and 47 minutes, China Railway said.

Construction of the railway started in 2014.