China-Laos Railway passenger service speeds up by over an hour

KUNMING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- From Tuesday, the passenger service via the China-Laos Railway will be shortened by more than an hour, benefiting from speedier customs clearance for cross-border passengers.

Previously, the trip from Kunming to the Lao capital of Vientiane on the 1,035-km-long track took 10 and a half hours to complete, including the time spent on going through customs.

Based on the upgraded train operation diagram, the travel time has now been reduced by 64 minutes due to a facilitated customs clearance procedure for passengers on the international train service.

The China-Laos Railway, which started cross-border passenger services in April this year, had transported 41,735 passengers from 49 countries and regions as of Saturday, when it marked its 100th day of operation.

Among the total, the number of inbound passengers was 12.2 percent more than that of outbound passengers, reaching 22,066, with 54 percent of them being tourists.