Ningbo railway station receives a large number of passengers every day. [Photo/zj.zjol.com]

The Ningbo-Shaoxing inter-city rail, China's first inter-city rail to be remolded from an existing one, will be put into trial operation on July 10 to promote the integrated development of the two cities.

This rail is scheduled to run 3 pairs of trains every day. The first train will leave Ningbo station at 8:00, and the last one will leave Qianqing (a county in Shaoxing) station at 16:25.

It takes passengers about 1 hr 20 min to travel from Ningbo to Shaoxing station by the rail and costs 20 yuan ($ 2.9). In comparison, high speed rail is 50 min faster but 31.5 yuan more expensive.

Ningbo and Shaoxing have two independent ticketing systems, which require passengers to buy a paper ticket to enter the inter-city rail station during the following year.

The cooperation to build the inter-city rail between the two cities started in the second half of 2018. The rail will promote the integrated development of the two cities by enabling infrastructure connection and resource sharing, officials said.