China will start construction of 10,000 kilometers of intercity and urban railway over the next five years in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta and Greater Bay area, the National Development and Reform Commission said Friday.

Officials said that once the rail line is completed in 2025, travel time between cities will be reduced to one to two hours.

Currently, main cities in the city cluster have achieved this goal. For example, it only takes passengers half an hour traveling from Beijing to Tianjin and one hour from Beijing to Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei. 

Officials said that the major work in the next five years is to fill the gap by extending the high-speed railway network to cities that are short of or haven't had access to the high-speed railway.

The three city clusters are the most economically vibrant regions in China. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is composed of 16 cities, including two municipalities, Beijing and Tianjin, and 13 cities in Hebei Province and one in Henan Province.

The Yangtze River Delta city cluster includes municipality Shanghai and 40 other cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. And the Greater Bay area includes nine cities in south China's Guangdong Province as well as Hong Kong and Macau.

The intercity and urban railway construction plan in the following five years is part of the country's long-term plan to speed up urbanization and stimulate local economies.

The country plans to expand its railway network, the second largest in the world, by one-third in the next decade and a half, aiming to have about 200,000 kilometers of railway tracks by the end of 2035, including about 70,000 kilometers of high-speed railway, according to the plan issued by State-owned China State Railway Group in August.