A woman shows a ticket for travel on July 1 from Bengbu South Railway Station to Beijing South Railway Station, part of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway line, June 24, 2011. The high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai starts operation on June 30 and tickets went on sale on Friday. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - A high-speed railway linking Beijing and Shanghai will officially start operation on June 30, China's Ministry of Railways said on Thursday.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 9 am, the ministry said.

According to the ministry's previous announcement, tickets for trips on trains running at 300 kp/h will be priced at 555 yuan ($85.38) for second-class seats and 1,750 yuan for business class. Prices for journeys on 250-kp/h trains will range from 410 yuan for second-class seats to 650 yuan for first-class.

The 1,318-kilometer rail, which starts trial operations on May 11, is expected to significantly ease the transportation strain between the two metropolises and promote development and coordination between regional economies.

There will be 63 pairs of trains with the speed of 300 kp/h every day, cutting travel time to 4 hours and 48 minutes. The additional 27 pairs of trains running 250 kp/h will complete the trip in about 8 hours, 2 hours shorter than the current high-speed trains, according to the ministry.

China will spend 2.8 trillion yuan on expanding its railways over the next five years, which will boost the railway network's length to a total of 120,000 kilometers.