Starting at 4:00 AM on October 12, the Shijiazhuang-Jinan Passenger Dedicated Line (Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line) from Gaocheng South Station to Pingyuan East Station (exclusive) officially began joint debugging and testing, marking that the Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line has entered the countdown stage for opening and operation.

　　The Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line is a key construction project in China's "12th Five-Year Plan", an important part of the Taiqing Passenger Dedicated Line (Taiyuan to Qingdao), the last "horizontal" of the "four vertical and four horizontal" passenger railway network in the national "Medium and Long-Term Railway Network Plan". It is jointly constructed by the Railway Corporation, Hebei Province, and Shandong Province, with a construction period of 4 years.

　　On March 16, 2014, the Shandong section of the Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line started construction first. On July 15, 2016, track laying began in the Shandong section. On May 10, 2017, track laying was completed for the entire line. On September 8, the entire line's catenary was successfully energized.

　　The project starts from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province in the west, extends eastward along the Shide Railway through Shijiazhuang City and Hengshui City in Hebei Province, Dezhou City in Shandong Province, to Jinan City, and introduces into the newly built Jinan East Station. There are 11 stations along the line. After opening and operation, it will closely connect the Northwest, North China, and East China regions, forming a "rectangular" high-speed rail loop network in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Dezhou as the base points, ending the history of no direct high-speed rail between central and western cities and coastal open areas.

　　The main line of the Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line is 310.2 kilometers long, with 19 new bridges totaling 189.35 kilometers, accounting for 85.83% of the entire line. The planned transport capacity is 60 million people per year, and the target speed is 250 kilometers per hour.

　　The joint debugging and testing section from Gaocheng South to Pingyuan East Station (exclusive) has a total length of 188 kilometers, accounting for 60.6% of the entire line.

　　According to the project schedule, the Shiji Passenger Dedicated Line will first open to Jinan West Station by the end of 2017.