Originally Posted by
JPDM
These are new trains and they already have the wifi. However I don't think that they'll have the higher speeds any time soon. Thy would bump into the trains ahead of them. I suspect that this will only happen once the construction of the new tracks is completed.
Appears trains are speeding up begining in September. Schedules for trains in late September (both on 12306.cn and chinahighlights.com, etc.) show some trains like the 9a G2 running at 4:28 with two 2 min. stops. Interestingly, re: bumping into trains ahead of them, on September 21 at least, the G12 leaves SHA 8a, arrives BJ 13:33 (5 stops, incld 14 min in Langfang), while the G2 leaves SHA 9a, arrives BJ 13:28 (2 stops).
We are traveling in October and I have yet to see the schedules update for October on English sites (and can't make 12306.cn timetable lookup work via VPN and pasting "上海" for Shanghai), but I am hopeful they will soon.
A (purported) list of the trains that will run faster on this route is here:
http://www.bestchinanews.com/Domestic/16469.html:
From September 21st onwards, the railway department will arrange 7 of the "Renaissance" EMU in the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway 350 km per hour, respectively, G3\/G4, G5\/G6, G1\/G2 as G7\/G8, G9\/G10, G13\/G14, G17\/G18 between Beijing and Shanghai, the entire running time of 4.5 hours.