The Jinan-Qingdao high speed railway is scheduled to go through joint debugging and commissioning in the first half of 2018 and start operation by the end of the year.

In the afternoon of Nov. 24, the Qingdao section of the route entered the track-laying stage at a construction site at the border of Gaomi in Weifang and Jiaozhou in Qingdao.

The route will run across the Shandong province from west to east, starting at Jinan East Railway Station and ending at the Hongdao area in Chengyang district in Qingdao. At a designed speed of 350 kilometer per hour, the traffic time between Jinan and Qingdao will be cut to one hour.

Its 307.8 kilometer route will cover 11 stations, including the Jiaodong International Airport near Qingdao. After its completion, it will form part of a regional railway network, connecting cities across Shandong and in the Jiangsu province to the south, by linking to the Qingdao-Rongcheng intercity railway and the Qingdao-Lianyungang railway.

Qingdao’s regional transportation hub status will be further cemented.