Shiwu Passenger Railway is a 840 km high-speed rail

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

 line between Shijiazhuang

Shijiazhuang

Shijiazhuang is the capital and largest city of North China's Hebei province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about south of Beijing...

 and Wuhan

Wuhan

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...

 in China under construction since October 2008. It is expected to be put into service by 2012. The total investment is 116.76 billion yuan

Chinese yuan

The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...

. The design speed is 350 km/h (220 mph). It is part of the Jingguang line connecting Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 and Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

.

The railway crosses the Yangtze in Wuhan

Wuhan

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...

 over the Tianxingzhou Bridge

Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge

thumb|right|400px|Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River BridgeThe Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge is a combined road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei Province of China....

, which was opened in December 2009.

Track-laying has been started on November 29, 2010.