A new ferry service that will dramatically cut travel between two cities on the Bohai Sea will begin commercial operations in September following completion of test voyages and port facilities.

The ferry will sail 159.8 km from Dalian, a port of northeast China's Liaoning Province, to Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong Province.

The ferry can carry a 50-car freight train, 50 20-ton trucks, 25 cars, and 480 passengers.

On Monday, the empty ferry completed a test voyage in about 10 hours. Similar test voyages will be required in August, said Yi Binhua, engineer-in-chief with China Railways Bohai Sea Train Ferry Co. Ltd.

The ferry service will cut the trip from Yantai to Dalian by 1,800 kilometers.

The ferry service cost three billion yuan (US$375 million) and took 20 months to complete. It is expected to help rejuvenate China's aging industrial area in the northeast.

It is the second such ferry service in China and the longest of the kind in the country. The first such train ferry service was built on Qiongzhou Straits in South China, connecting Haikou on Hainan Island with Hai'an in Guangdong Province.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2006)