CHONGQING/GUIYANG, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- A railway connecting Chongqing and Guiyang, two major cities in southwest China, started operation Thursday.

A bullet train carrying 552 passengers left Chongqing Municipality for Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, at 8:50 a.m., according to the Chengdu railway bureau.

Forty-six pairs of bullet trains will run on the 347-km rail line, which was designed for trains running at a speed of 200 km per hour.

The line cuts travel time between Chongqing and Guiyang from the current 10 hours to 2 hours, and shortens travel time between Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and Guiyang to 3.5 hours.

Passenger Li Xiaoqiang said he loved the natural scenery in Guizhou and that he made the trip to prepare for a family journey.

"We want to spend summer there," Li said.

Li Jie, who makes several business trips to Zunyi of Guizhou from Chongqing every month, said the new train service would shorten his travel time from 3.5 hours to less than 1.5 hours.

"In fact, I came here today just to experience the train's maiden run," he said.

The new line is expected to replace the primitive Sichuan-Guizhou railway constructed between the 1950s and 1970s. Low design standards, in addition to towering cliffs and ravines along the route, shackled its traffic speed, according to Dai Xu with the Chongqing railway station.

A total of 209 bridges, 115 two-way tunnels and 12 stations were built for the new railway, which will improve traffic between China's southwest, a major source of migrant workers, and booming southern areas.?