Chinese trains will travel faster by October, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun announced over the weekend at an annual work conference.

The speed increases, scheduled for last year, were held back for technical reasons.

According to this year's plan, China will have more than 22,000 kilometers of railways which handle speeds of above 120 kilometers. It will be the sixth time that rail speeds would be raised.

Of the total, 5,300 kilometers of railways will allow speeds of 200 kilometers per hour, including passenger lines such as Beijing to Shanghai, Beijing to Harbin and Lanzhou to Lianyungang.

The last increase was on April 18, 2004, when the speed on major lines was raised to 160 kilometers per hour. The travel time between Beijing and Shanghai was cut from 14 hours to 12 hours.

Compared with the fifth speed-improvement project, the sixth involves more complicated technology.

According to the minister, China plans to spend 160 billion yuan (US$19.8 billion) for building railways this year but the nation is still likely to face problems with transportation bottlenecks over the next five years.

"There will be a boom in building in the next five years," Liu said. "But shortages in transportation capacity will remain and the development of the transport market is not mature."

The rail network is also braced for massive passenger flows during the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on January 29 this year, when millions of migrant workers, college students and others travel home.

(China Daily January 9, 2006)