BEIJING - Some 52.6 million passengers have travelled on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway since it opened to the public a year ago, latest data showed Saturday.

More than 56,000 trains traversed the railway in the first year of its operation, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Company said.

After three years of construction, the 1,318-km railway linking Beijing and Shanghai went into operation in June last year.

Trains were initially allowed to travel at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, which was later adjusted to 300 km per hour to allegedly reduce operation costs.

Built with an investment of 217.6 billion yuan ($34.5 billion), the railway has shortened travel time between the two cities to about five hours.