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China set to unveil high-speed train for Games

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China - With its swivel seats, spacious, plush interiors and the largest railway station in Asia, China has high hopes for a new express link from Beijing to nearby Tianjin, the fastest rail service on the planet.

The railway will open next Friday, in time for next month's Beijing Olympics, and will shuttle people to soccer events in Tianjin, one of the Games' co-host cities.

It will chop one hour off the current rail journey, reducing it to a 30-minute hop, taking passengers at a top speed of 220 mph on special sleek trains with interiors that look more like aircraft cabins.

Reporters were given a sneak preview of the ultra-modern trains on a government-organized trip on Tuesday, zipping through the lush countryside past massive housing developments and deserted highways.

"This is a revolution in terms of ramping up the speed of Chinese railways," Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping told reporters at the cavernous new Beijing South railway station, which he said was the largest in Asia.

Trains can run on the $2.93 billion new Tianjin line every three minutes, and each train can carry around 600 people between landlocked Beijing and its port city neighbor.
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