Construction began at 10 am Wednesday on a new intercity railway between Beijing and the Xiongan New Area that will shorten travel time to half an hour.

The railway will be 92.4 kilometers long with an investment of 33.53 billion yuan ($5.29 billion).

It will have five stations that begin at Liying Station along the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, and will run through Daxing district in Beijing, Beijing's new airport and Bazhou in Hebei province, ending in Xiongan.

The Beijing section that runs from Liying to the new airport will begin service in September 2019, when the new airport opens. The designated speed of the section will be 250 km/h.

The section from the new airport to Xiongan will be put into operation by the end of 2020, with a designated speed of 350 km/h.

When the full railway is operational, the travel time from downtown Beijing to Xiongan will be reduced to half an hour.

The Xiongan New Area, established in April 2017, is a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing in Hebei. It is the third new area of national significance after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area.