A China bullet train, which can run up to 250 kms (155 miles) lauched its service after several months of testing. China has joined a small group of nations capable of running high speed trains although the majority of the locomotive technology is imported from Japan's Mitsubishi-Kawasaki, Canada's Bombardier, German Siemens and France's Alstom.
The first train left Shanghai station at 5:38 am, bound for neighbouring Suzhou, a distance of about 80 kilometres, it said.
The number of high-speed trains will increase to 257 by the end of this year.
With speeds of 200 to 250 kilometres per hour, the bullet trains will expand national railway passenger capacity by 18 percent, or an addition of 340,000 seats a day, alleviating ticket shortages, especially during holidays.
However, only 6,003 kilometres (3,720 miles) of track will be able to accommodate the new fast trains, with most locomotives being forced to top out at 160 kilometres on 14,000 kilometres of inadequate track.
On another 22,000 kilometres of track trains will be forced to chug along at 120 kilometres per hour.
Nevertheless by 2020, China hopes 13,000 kilometres of track will be able to handle its bullet trains.
The Ticket cost is 42 yuan (5.43 US dollars) on the bullet service between Beijing to Tianjin.
The Train has WiFi services for laptops and other mobile devices.
