SHANGHAI, Apr. 18 -- A home-made bullet train left Shanghai Railway Station this morning in China's first commercial high-speed train operation.

The D460 train set off at 5:38am on a round trip to Suzhou in neighboring Jiangsu Province. Traveling at an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour the train made the first trip in the nation-wide train speed upgrade program.

Some 67 people became the country's first batch of passengers on the high-speed trains, whose peak speed can reach 250 kilometers per hour on the run. For the trip, they paid 24 yuan (US$3.10), compared with the previous highest ticket price of 13 yuan.

During a 10-minute break at Suzhou Railway Station, all the seats on the train were turned around for the return journey.

From Suzhou to Shanghai, the 610-seat train was fully-loaded with most of its passengers on their way to work or off on a business trip. At 7:11am, the train arrived in Shanghai.

China plans to put 120 high-speed trains into service this year. The speed upgrade is expected to boost the passenger-handling capacity of the country's rail network by 18 percent and cargo handling capacity by 12 percent.

The first six new trains hit the tracks today and the remaining new rapid trains will be launched on July 1, October 1 and at year's end.

Of the new trains, 86 will serve the country's major cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin.

The trains all have CRH, an abbreviation for China Railway High-speed, painted on their bodies. Each car of a CRH trains has its own power supply system, unlike ordinary cars which are towed by a locomotive.

As they will be operating on short and medium-distance lines, the super-fast trains will not have sleeper compartments.