The travel between Chengdu and Guiyang, the capitals of western provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou, will be shortened to 3.5 hours when the Chongqing-Guiyang electrified railway service is put into operation on Jan. 25.

The railway service is expected to ease the transportation between western regions and southern and eastern regions of China, running from Chongqing to Guiyang, and via extended routes linking Sichuan and Hunan to the east, and Guangxi and Guangdong to the south.

A total of 38 pairs of electric multiple units will be dispatched to serve the new route and its extension to Chengdu. 33 of them will run across longer distances through extended routes to Changsha, Nanning and Guangzhou.

By connecting existing routes, the travel time between Chengdu and Guangzhou will be cut to 8 hours after the launching of the new service.

Tickets to the new service are available starting from Jan. 19. The price for a second-class seat is set at 129 yuan. A ticket of the same class will cost 275 yuan for an extended route reaching Chengdu East Station.

The soon-to-open service will also add capacity much-needed for the forthcoming Spring Festival period.