A 174-kilometer high-speed railway that connects Beijing with a mountainous ski resort area to the northwest went into operation Monday, completing a key infrastructure link between the two cities that will co-host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou line – better known as Jing-Zhang high-speed railway — is slashing the travel time between Beijing the Zhanjiakou Winter Olympics Village to just 47 minutes from a previous 3 hours.

The line into Beijing-adjacent Hebei province allows for a maximum designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour. Construction began in 2013 as part of the Beijing-Baotou railway system. It was expanded with two other lines to connect to resorts in the winter resort towns of Yanqing and Chongli in 2014 after China won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics Games. In 2016, construction of Jing-Zhang high speed railway started.

An estimated 58.41 billion yuan ($8.3 billion) was spent to build the line, according to Beijing News. China Railway Beijing Group and Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co. Ltd. contributed 27% and 25.37% of the line’s costs, respectively, alongside China Railway Development Fund and Hebei Construction Investment & Transportation Co. Ltd.

Despite its completion well in advance of 2022, the line has not been without some controversy. Construction of the Beijing section of the route faced strong pushback from local residents and officials in 2015, even though the government ultimately prevailed in the route’s construction.

Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com)