View Full Version : Beijing Metros:3 More Opening
Beijing's subway to go citywide by 2015
BEIJING, Dec. 14 -- People within Beijing's Fourth Ring Road will never be more than about 1 km from a subway station once a new citywide mass-transit rail network is completed in 2015, an official said in Beijing Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of Beijing's municipal committee of communications, said that by that time, 8 million people will use the subway every day, up from the current 2.9 million.
He said that by 2015, about 45 percent of all journeys made in the capital, including those by bus, will be on public transport, up from 34.5 percent at present.
Ten new subway lines are currently under construction, most of which will not be completed until after the 2008 Olympics.
Two, however - Line 10 (which includes the branch going through main Olympic venues) and the airport rail line - will be opened ahead of the Games, Liu said.
By next year, the total length of the city's subways will be 200 km.
To meet demand during the Games, the committee plans to extend the operating hours of all subways and buses, and add 34 special Olympic bus routes, Liu said.
With some 1,000 new cars appearing on Beijing's roads every day, Liu said authorities in the capital are under increasing pressure to address the traffic situation.
"But we will not curb private car ownership. What we will do is continue to adopt policies that encourage people to use public transport," Liu said.
This year, the price of a standard bus ticket was reduced to 0.4 yuan (5 cents) for public traffic card holders and a subway ticket to 2 yuan, making Beijing one of the cheapest places in the country for public transport, he said.
Chen Chen, a journalist in the capital, said: "People from outside Beijing are often surprised when they find it costs only 0.4 yuan to ride on a bus here."
In many other cities, the standard fare is at least 1 yuan, he said.
The price cuts will cost the municipal government 4.15 billion yuan this year, Liu said.
He said the government has earmarked 71.5 billion yuan for public transport between 2006 and 2010, which accounts for 45 percent of the total investment on communications infrastructure.
"The investments and efforts have stopped Beijing's traffic situation from deteriorating, and in some areas have actually seen improvement," Liu said.
Wang Gang, director of the Beijing municipal center for communications, said at yesterday's press conference that car owners will also be encouraged to fit satellite navigation systems.
"Our research has shown they can cut traveling time by up to 15 percent," he said.(Xinhua)
http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=1786
http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=1786
Paper tickets fade out of Beijing subway
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Paper tickets, which were in service for 38 years at Beijing Subway, were phased out on Monday but would hopefully enter private collection.
An automatic fare collection (AFC) system became operational at all Beijing subway stations on Monday, requesting passengers to produce their magnetic strip tickets or mass transit smart cards twice when entering and exiting the subway gates.
At least a dozen subway workers were standing by at Fuchengmen station in downtown Beijing on Monday morning to explain the process to passengers, most of whom baffled at a line of AFC machines blocking the entrance and exit.
Previously a passenger only needed to present his paper ticket or process his smart card upon entering a subway station.
With the new system, however, the check-in and check-out gates remain closed until the magnetic strip tickets or smart cards are properly processed.
"Be careful with the ticket. You'll still need it upon your exit," the subway workers would tell everyone who produced a magnetic strip ticket at the self-service ticket seller machine.
The ticket is retrieved by the AFC system upon a passenger's exit.
All the TVs in subway trains, which have been installed to livebroad cast Olympic events to the passengers during the Games, keep playing a video to explain how the new fare collection system works.
The fare for a subway ride remains unchanged, at two yuan.
At Taobao.com, a popular retail website, paper subway tickets of yesteryear are already wooed by some private collectors. A ticket of the 1990s, with a face value of 0.2 yuan, is now sold for 100 times as much.
"I don't think such tickets have much room for further appreciation though," said an online seller surnamed Liao. "After all, they have too little cultural connotation."
Yet Liao himself has collected hundreds of subway tickets, the earliest of which were issued in the 1970s. "They'll become something when you can't lay hands on one of them." (Xinhua)
Today In Asia : Last Update : 14:24:17 9 June 2008 (GMT+7:00)
http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=4673
Three more metro rail lines open at weekend in Beijing
By Cui Xiaohuo
China Daily
Updated: 2008-07-18 07:35
The new subway Line 10, with air-conditioned and spacious compartments, will open this weekend.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20080718/0013729e4ad909ea2b6113.jpg
[Photo: China daily - A commuter walks past a Beijing Subway Map at a subway station in Beijing July 17, 2008.]
A 4.3-km length of the Olympic line and a shuttle train between Dongzhimen and the airport terminals will also open for test runs at the same time. They will extend Beijing's underground railway to 200 km.
"The new lines will directly serve the huge crowds during the Olympics," Zhou Zhengyu, spokesman for the Beijing municipal committee of communications, said Thursday.
Beijing is expecting 21 million commuters each day during the Aug 8-24 Games' period, and up to 5.85 million passengers will use the city's subway during that period, more than one quarter of the total commuters using public transport.
The 15.5 billion yuan ($2.27 billion) Line 10 links Zhongguancun, Beijing's IT hub in the northwest, with the city's central business district in the east. The journey time is 45 minutes.
However, the Olympic subway line, part of the planned Line 8, will not be open to passengers without tickets or accreditation.
Special zones will be set up at each subway station to separate Games ticket holders and accredited personnel, who will enjoy free public transport.
The airport express will operate from 6 am till the last flight arrives at the newly built Terminal 3. The trip from Dongzhimen to the airport will take 20 minutes, with 15-minute intervals.
Six more subway lines are being built, and the next one to open next year is Line 4, which will cross the populated west part of Beijing.
Construction of new lines is on schedule despite the delayed opening of Line 10, which had been scheduled to open early last month, Liu Hongtao, deputy director of the local railway transportation construction corporation, said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20080718/0013729e4ad909ea2b4b0f.jpg
By 2015, Beijing's subway network will stretch more than 561 km and have 420 stations. The cost of developing each kilometer of subway is 500 million yuan.
The municipal government has an annual budget of about 1 billion yuan for public transport.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-07/18/content_6857724.htm
See also previous post
Beijing opens new subway lines in time for car ban
By Claro Cortes IV, Reuters
Sunday, July 20, 2008
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news_images/20080720/p11d.jpg
[Photo: China Post - Passengers wait to board the new Airport Express train at the subway station at Beijing Capital International Airport in China’s capital Saturday, July 19. Beijing opened three new subway lines Saturday, delayed from a planned late-June start but just in time to carry passengers banned from their cars as the capital tries to clean up its skies before next month’s Olympics.(Reuters) ]
BEIJING -- Beijing opened two new subway lines Saturday, delayed from a planned late-June start but just in time to carry passengers banned from their cars as the capital tries to clean up its skies before next month's Olympics.
Passenger service has yet to start, however, on a third line that will serve the Olympic Green and was the site of an opening ceremony and test ride for the media Saturday morning.
An official with the Beijing subway operating company said it was not clear when the line would begin regular service.
The three new lines, which cost 22.3 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) to build and are part of massive infrastructure plans to ease transport during the Games, will increase the city's subway lines to eight and expand their reach by 40 percent to 200 km (125 miles).
Eager crowds rushed through the turnstiles when the airport line formally opened in the afternoon, while a large contingent of uniformed security officers kept watch over travelers with suitcases and families out for a short excursion on the gleaming new trains.
Inside subway cars on the Number 10 line, a commuter route, parents sat with children on their laps, many watching clips of professional basketball games on video screens that are also due to carry live shots of the Olympics.
In addition to shuttling Olympic visitors around town, the new lines will boost transport options for Beijing's residents, whose rising wealth has triggered a boom in car ownership and severely worsened the city's chronic smog and traffic jams.
The Beijing authorities, eager to improve air quality before the Games start on Aug. 8, will restrict vehicle use to alternate days for even- and odd-numbered license plates starting Sunday.
This will require an additional 4 million people to rely on the public transport system, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
While the new lines' maiden journeys went off with no apparent hitches, Zhou Zhengyu, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, sidestepped a question at a Thursday news conference about whether there would be enough time to iron out any kinks before the Games kick off.
Nor did he say if there had been any problems with construction that might have delayed the opening, originally due by late June.
Beijing has largely avoided the problems the last Olympic host, Athens, encountered with delayed infrastructure projects, and has won praise from the International Olympic Committee for finishing venue construction work either on time or ahead of schedule.
The city has also upgraded trains on existing lines, the first of which dates from the 1960s, although some trains and stations will remain without air conditioning by the time the Olympics come in August -- one of the hottest months of the year.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/local%20news/beijing/2008/07/20/166316/Beijing%2Dopens.htm
Beijing commuters switch to subways, buses for Olympics
By Anita Chang, AP
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news_images/20080723/p6b.jpg
[Photo: China Post - This combo photo shows traffic before and after the introduction of traffic controls in Beijing. The upper photo was taken in the morning of Sunday, July 20, and the lower one was taken in the morning of Friday, July 18.] [GWR: Do Beijingites work on Sundays?]
BEIJING -- Traffic flowed a little smoother. Busy avenues had fewer cars. By nightfall, even the hazy sky had mostly cleared.
So went the first workday under a government-imposed plan to reduce Beijing's foul air pollution before the start of next month's Olympics.
Millions of commuters turned to subways, buses and car pools Monday, July 21 as the strict program sought to take half of Beijing's 3.3 million cars off the road.
In parts of the city, traffic was visibly lighter than on other workdays.
"There were much fewer vehicles on the airport expressway, and I could drive much faster," said civil servant Lin Kai, shaving with an electric razor while sitting in his parked car.
He said he bought a new bicycle because of the restrictions and would try to pedal to work a few times a week despite the summer heat and the hour-long ride.
The two-month operation that began Sunday, July 20 bans cars with odd-numbered license plates one day, even-numbered plates the next. The ambitious attempt to ensure "blue sky days" by the time 10,500 athletes and 500,000 visitors arrive for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics includes construction cutbacks and factory closures.
Those caught driving on days they should not will be fined 100 yuan (US$14), a stiff penalty even for Beijing. It wasn't known how many tickets were issued; phones rang unanswered all day at the police traffic management bureau.
Sun Weide, spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee, said the plan should reduce vehicle emissions by 63 percent. The emissions are a major cause of the thick, gray-brown haze that often hides the city's skyline.
Changes in air quality will be monitored by experts from the city's environmental protection bureau, which has 27 survey stations around Beijing and another 18 in Olympic venues, according to the state-run Beijing Times newspaper.
So far, "the air in the city is good, the density of pollutants has fallen," the report said, citing the bureau. But it will take at least 20 days for results to be conclusive, deputy director Du Shaozhong was cited as saying.
Foreign experts said the plan could still go wrong because unpredictable winds might blow pollution from other provinces into Beijing, or a lack of wind -- common in August -- could allow local pollution to build up.
"For about 20 years, they have gotten rid of coal-burning in the city, but in the surrounding provinces, coal-burning has increased, so there are some things outside of the purview of the blue sky plan," said Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "There could be pollutants from outside the city blowing in."
Turner said new subways and a rapid transit system may help reduce car use in the long term, along w
ith the increase in gas prices.
"While the ban is a short term Band-Aid, it raises awareness," she said.
"The government has been pushing for cleaner autos and standards, and this is helpful for putting the issue front and center."
On Monday, drivers with even-numbered plates were forced to find other ways to travel, and the government estimated that would mean an extra 4 million commuters.
Normally snarled traffic flowed smoothly in many areas, although a special "Olympic lane" on many busy thoroughfares meant one fewer lane for vehicles without a special pass. The Olympic lanes were empty Monday, still 18 days before the games begin, while adjacent lanes were jammed as usual.
"I don't feel any difference today. It seems the number of cars on the road didn't decrease very much," said one driver, who like most Chinese gave only his surname, Liu.
He said he was not too inconvenienced by the restrictions: "I have two cars, and tomorrow I'll drive the even-numbered car."
Neighborhood Web sites were filled with car pool requests, while others relied on public transportation. Although there were more riders, the system was generally able to handle the increase by adding buses and subway cars.
"It was crowded before, there's still a lot of people now," said Jiang Hao, as he stood on a subway platform during the evening rush hour. "But it's a test for the Beijing subway system, because before, the city subway was already sometimes overloaded."
Subway cars were full, though they were not as jammed as they sometimes can be, when passengers are pressed awkwardly against the car doors and each other.
The passenger load was alleviated by two new subway lines and an airport rail link that opened at the weekend.
The number of passengers on the three routes was expected to reach 1.1 million daily during the Olympics.
In all, eight lines will carry up to 5 million people daily during the games, the company that runs the subway said.
Beijing's foul air is forcing many athletes to train outside the city, and International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has said outdoor endurance events lasting more than an hour will be postponed if air quality is poor. The world's greatest distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, has bowed out of the marathon because the pollution irritates his asthma.
In addition to the traffic plan, chemical plants, power stations and foundries had to cut emissions by 30 percent beginning Sunday. Dusty, noisy construction in the capital had to stop entirely.
Some 300,000 heavily polluting vehicles -- aging industrial trucks, many of which run only at night -- were banned as of July 1.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/local%20news/beijing/2008/07/23/166798/p2/Beijing%2Dcommuters.htm
jpatokal
11-08-08, 12:52 PM
Here's a great little review/trip report (http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20080801_beijing_airport_express_train_in_depth.ht m) on the Beijing Airport Express line, courtesy of Wang Jian Shuo. Looks like they're done a pretty good job!
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