The new Datong-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway entered the home stretch towards completion, starting trial runs recently as a train departed the newly built Datong South Railway Station on Nov 16. 

The trial run, the final testing before the official opening of the railway, is expected to end around Dec 19. 

China Railway Taiyuan Group Co will simulate normal operations to test the adaptability of each system and the overall system's stability and to improve the transport plan. 

Connecting Datong city in Shanxi province and Zhangjiakou city in Hebei province, it is a two-line passenger railway. The 134.4-kilometer-long line has a design top speed of 250 kilometers per hour and features three stations – Datong South Railway Station, Yanggao South Railway Station and Tianzhen Railway Station. 

At the city of Zhangjiakou, the railway will be connected to the Zhangjiakou-Hohhot High-speed Railway and Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway. 

Officials said it is scheduled to open to traffic at the end of December together with the other two high-speed railways. 

Once in full operation, the travel time between Beijing and Datong will be compressed from the current six hours to around 100 minutes.

In addition, will take only around one hour to travel from Datong to Zhangjiakou, compared with the previous 2.5-hour train journey. 

Officials said the new railway will improve the high-speed rail network in North China and provide transport support for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional integration.