Thanks to China's increased investment in rail networks, the country's fastest 2,298-kilometer (1,428-mile) bullet-train line, between Beijing and Guangzhou was officially started on Wednesday; with state broadcaster China Central Television reporting that the first train on the high-speed line left on schedule, at 9am, from Beijing West Station.

According to the information shared by the Chinese Ministry of Railways, the trains on the Beijing-Guangzhou rail line - the longest high-speed train line in the world - will initially run at a `300 kilometers per hour' speed; thereby cutting the total commuting time between the two stations by more than half --- from the earlier 21 hours to just around eight hours.

The Ministry also said that the high-speed train line will connect China's capital Beijing with Pearl River Delta's Guangzhou, after passing through five provinces from the north to the south. The line also links to the already-operational high-speed rail lines, including the one from Beijing to Shanghai, and another from Guangzhou to Shenzhen.

The opening of the bullet-train line - which will ultimately connect to Hong Kong - marks a significant milestone in China's ambitious plans of constructing a high-speed rail network of
16,000 kilometers by 2015.

Noting that the starting of the bullet-train line could increase competition for airlines, Barclays' analysts Patrick Xu and Jon Windham said in a last-week note to clients that the continued development of the high-speed train network will "marginalize short-haul domestic air routes," and "exacerbate the competition on long-haul domestic routes and depress margins."