Jining has two railway stations: Jining North (on the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway) and the older Jining Station in the city center. The high-speed station connects to Beijing South in about 2.5 hours and to Shanghai in about 3.5 hours. Qufu-Yanzhou station, about 15 kilometres east, is closer to the Confucian sites and on the high-speed main line. Jining is about 250 kilometres south of Jinan; the high-speed journey takes approximately 1 hour.
By road, Jining is on the G35 Jichang Expressway. Long-distance buses serve Jinan, Qingdao, Tai'an, and other Shandong cities. The Jining-Rizhao high-speed railway, when completed, will provide a direct connection to the coast.