SHIJIAZHUANG - Construction on a rail transit linking Beijing and Xiongan New Area began Wednesday, according to the Xiongan New Area management committee.

As the first major transportation project involving Xiongan, the 33.53-billion-yuan ($5.3 billion) rail transit stretches 92.4 km and has five stops via Daxing District of Beijing and Bazhou City in Hebei province.

The rail transit will shorten the travel time between Beijing and Xiongan to 30 minutes.

The section from Beijing's downtown area to its new airport has a designed speed of 250 km per hour, and will be put into use together with the airport in September 2019.

The section from the airport to Xiongan has a designed speed of 350 km per hour, and will be operational by the end of 2020.