Beijing Subway

The Beijing Subway (simplified Chinese: 北京地铁; traditional Chinese: 北京地鐵; pinyin: Běijīng dìtiě) is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. With 8 lines, over 200 km of tracks and 123 stations^[1] currently in operation and ridership averaging 3.4 million per day,^[2] the Beijing Subway is the busiest in mainland China, and the second longest after the Shanghai Metro. Ridership set a daily record of 4.92 million on August 22, 2008.^[3] The existing network cannot adequately meet the city's mass transit needs and is undergoing rapid expansion. Three new lines were opened on July 19,2008 ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. Existing plans call for 19 lines and 561 km of tracks in operation by 2015.^[4]

Fares

A flat fare of RMB(¥) 2.00 with unlimited transfers applies to all lines except the Airport Express, which costs ¥25.00.^[5] Children less than 1.2m in height ride for free when accompanied by a paying adult.^[6]

All lines now collect fares through automatic fare collection (AFC) machines that accept single-ride tickets and Yikatong, an integrated circuit card (ICC card) that can store credit for multiple rides. Riders can purchase tickets and add credit to Yikatong at ticket counters and vending machines in every station. Yikatong is also accepted on many city buses.

The use of tickets hand checked by clerks was phased out on June 9, 2008.^[7] Before the flat fare was introduced on October 7, 2007, fares ranged from ¥3 to ¥5, depending on the line and the number of transfers.

Hours of Operation

The subway is generally closed after midnight, unless a special occasion prompts extended operating hours.^[8] The first trains depart terminals at around 5 am and the last leaves at around 11 pm For precise hours and frequency of service, check the official schedule [4].

Lines

Platform of Tian'anmen East Station

Subway Entrance near Tiananmen.

Airport Express at Terminal 3

Beijing's subway lines generally follow the checkerboard layout of the city. Most lines run parallel or perpendicular to each other and intersect at right angles.

• Line 1, a straight east-west line underneath Chang'an Avenue, which bisects the city through Tiananmen Square. Line 1 connects major commercial centres, Xidan, Wangfujing, Dongdan and the Beijing CBD.
• Line 2, a rectangular loop line, traces the Ming-era city wall that once surrounded the inner city, and stops at 11 of the wall's former gates (ending in men), now busy intersections, as well as the Beijing Railway Station.^[9]
• Line 5, a straight north-south line just east of the city centre. It passes the Temple of Earth, Lama Temple and the Temple of Heaven.
• Line 10, a "┐"-shaped route to the north and east of Line 2. It follows the Yuan-era city wall in the north, passing just south of the Olympic Green. At the Sanyuanqiao, northeast of the city, Line 10 turns straight south and follows the eastern 3rd Ring Road through the embassy district and Beijing CBD.
• Olympic Branch Line (Line 8 Phase I) extends north off Line 10 with three stops in the Olympic Green.
• Line 13 arcs across suburbs north of the city and channels commuters to Xizhimen and Dongzhimen, at the northwest and northeast corners of Line 2.
• Line Batong extends Line 1 eastward from Sihui to suburban Tongzhou District.
• The Airport Line connects the Beijing Capital International Airport, 27 km northeast of the city, with Line 10 at Sanyuanqiao and Lines 2 and 13 at Dongzhimen.

Lines in Operation

Three new lines, Line 10 (Phase I), the Olympic Branch Line (Phase I of Line 8) and the Airport Line were opened on July 19, 2008 ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in August.^[10]

Lines now under construction or set to begin construction

In addition to the 8 lines currently in operation, there are at least 7 lines with 164 km of track length now under construction (Lines 4, 6, 8 (Phase II), 9, 10 (Phase II) and commuter lines to Daxing and Yizhuang).^[12] Work on at least three more Lines 7, 14, and the Fangshan Line are set to begin by the end of 2008.^[13] Overall, Beijing's rapid transit rail network is expected to reach 561 km in length by 2015.

A map showing Beijing subway lines currently in operation (see solid lines marking Lines 1, 2, 5, 8 (Phase 1), 10 (Phase 1), 13, Batong, and the Airport Express), and several of the lines now under construction (see dashed lines marking Lines 4, 6, 7, 8 (Phase II), 9, 10 (Phase II), 14, Daxing, and Yizhuang.

The new lines will significantly expand the subway's coverage, especially south and west of the city. Running parallel to Line 5 but further west will be Line 4 and Line 9. Flanking either side of Line 1 will be Line 6 and Line 7. Line 10, when fully completed, will form a complete loop around Line 2. Line 8 will extend the Olympic Branch Line north to Line 13 and south to Line 2. Line 14 will run from the southwest to the northeast. The Daxing, Yizhuang and Fangshan will connect outlying districts to the Beijing Subway.

Lines identified in future subway plans

The following lines have been identified in future expansion plans for the Beijing Subway. The plans are tentative. None of these lines have been funded or are scheduled to be built by 2015.

Beijing Suburban Railway

The Beijing Suburban Railway is a mass transit rail network that will complement the subway and provides commuter train service to outlying suburban districts and counties. Six "S"-numbered lines have been planned.^[16] They will generally make use of existing railways, and will operate under separate management and fare structure. The S2 Line, opened August 6, 2008, runs from the Beijing North Railway Station at Xizhimen to Yanqing County, and provides direct urban rail access to the Great Wall at Badaling.^[17] The S1 Line will channel riders from Mentougou District west of the city to Pingguoyuan and Wulu, the western terminus of Line 1 and Line 6.^[18]

History

The Beijing Railway Station, now a stop on the Line 2 loop, was the eastern terminus of the original Beijing subway line

Older model Line 2 train

Much of Beijing's city walls were torn down during the construction of the subway. The route of the initial subway line was slightly altered to save Qianmen gate (above) and its archery tower (visible at far right).

¥3 Line 13 paper ticket (discontinued 6/9/2008)

1953-1965: origins

The Beijing Subway was proposed in September 1953 by the city's planning committee and experts from the Soviet Union.^[19] After the end of the Korean War, Chinese leaders turned their attention to domestic reconstruction. They were keen to expand Beijing's mass transit capacity but also valued the subway as an asset for civil defense. They studied the use of the Moscow Metro to protect civilians, move troops and headquarter military command posts during the Battle of Moscow, and planned the Beijing Subway for both civilian and military use.^[19]

The Chinese lacked expertise in building subways and drew heavily on Soviet and East German technical assistance. In 1954, a delegation of Soviet engineers including some who had built the Moscow Metro, were invited to plan the subway in Beijing.^[19] From 1953 to 1960, several thousand Chinese students were sent to the Soviet Union to study subway construction.^[19] An early plan unveiled in 1957 called for one ring route and six other lines with a total of 114 stations and 172 km of tracks.^[19] Two routes vied for the first to be built. One ran east-west from Wukesong to Hongmiao, underneath Changan Avenue. The other ran north-south from the Summer Palace to Zhongshan Park, via Xizhimen and Xisi. The former was chosen due to more favorable geological foundation and greater number of government bureaus served. The second route would not be built until construction on Line 4 began forty years later.

The deterioration of relations between China and Soviet Union disrupted subway planning. Soviet experts began to leave in 1960, and were completely withdrawn by 1963.^[20] In 1961, the entire project was halted temporarily due to severe hardships caused by the Great Leap Forward. Eventually, planning work resumed. The route of the initial line was shifted westward to create an underground conduit to move personnel from the heart of the capital to the Western Hills. On February 4, 1965, Chairman Mao Zedong personally approved the project.^[21]

1965-1981: the slow beginning

Construction began on July 1, 1965 at a ceremony attended by national leaders including Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, and mayor Peng Zhen.^[22] The most controversial legacy of the initial subway line is the demolition of the Beijing's historic inner city wall to make way for the subway. Construction plans for the subway from Fuxingmen to the Beijing Railway Station called for the removal of the wall, as well as the gates and archery towers at Hepingmen, Qianmen, and Chongwenmen. Leading architect Liang Sicheng argued for protecting the wall as a landmark of the ancient capital. Chairman Mao favored demolishing the wall over demolishing homes. In the end, Premier Zhou Enlai managed to preserve Qianmen gate and its arrow tower by slightly altering the course of the subway.^[23]

The initial line was completed in time to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, 1969.^[24] It ran 21 km from the army barracks at Fushouling to the Beijing Railway Station and had 16 stations. This line forms parts of present-day Lines 1 and 2. It was the first subway to be built in China, and predates the metros of Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, San Francisco and Washington D.C., but technical problems would plague the project for the next decade.

On November 11, 1969, an electrical fire killed 3 people, injured over 100 and destroyed two cars.^[25] Premier Zhou Enlai placed the subway under the control of the People’s Liberation Army in 1970, but reliability problems persisted.^[26] On January 15, 1971, the initial line began operation on a trial basis between the Beijing Railway Station and Gongzhufen.^[27] Single ride fare was set at ¥0.10 and only members of the public with credential letters from their work units were permitted entry into the subway. The line delivered 8.28 million rides in 1971 but remained under trial operation throughout the Cultural Revolution. From 1971 to 1975, the subway was shut down for 398 days for political reasons.^[28] Despite its return to civilian control in 1976, the subway remained prone to closures due to fires, flooding, and accidents.

1981-2000: two lines for two decades

On September 15, 1981, after a decade of trial operation, the initial line was finally opened to full public use.^[29] It had 19 stations and ran 27.6 km from Fushouling in the Western Hills to the Beijing Railway Station. Investment in the project totaled ¥706 million. The subway was placed under the management of the Beijing Subway Company, then a subsidiary of the Beijing Public Transportation Company. Annual ridership reached 72.5 million in 1982.

On September 20, 1984, a second line was opened to the public. This horseshoe-shaped line was created from the eastern half of the initial line and corresponds to the southern half of the present-day Line 2. It ran 16.1 km from Fuxingmen to Jianguomen with 16 stations. Ridership reached 105 million in 1985. On December 28, 1987, the two existing lines were reconfigured into Lines 1, which ran from Pingguoyuan to Fuxingmen and Line 2, in its current loop, tracing the Ming city wall. Fares doubled to ¥0.20 for single-line rides and ¥0.30 for rides with transfers. Ridership reached 307 million in 1988. The subway was closed from June 3-4, 1989 during the suppression of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. In 1990, the subway carried more than one million riders per day for the first time, as total ridership reached 381 million. After a fare hike to ¥0.50 in 1991, annual ridership declined slightly to 371 million.

On January 26, 1991, planning began on the eastward extension of Line 1 under Chang’an Avenue from Fuxingmen with the receipt of 19.2 billion yen low-interest, development assistance loan from Japan.^[30] Construction began on the eastern extension on June 24, 1992. The Xidan station opened on December 12, 1992, and the remaining extension to Sihui East was completed on September 28, 1999.^[31] National leaders Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Yu Zhengsheng and mayor Liu Qi were on hand to mark the occasion.^[32] The full-length of Line 1 became operational on June 26, 2000.^[33]

Despite little track expansion in the early 1990s, ridership grew rapidly to reach an all-time high of 558 million in 1995, but fell to 444 million the next year when fares rose from ¥0.50 to ¥2.00. After fares rose again to ¥3.00 in 2000, annual ridership fell to 434 million from 481 million in 1999.

2001-present: rapid expansion

Line 13 train entering Wudaokou station. Line 13 and the Batong Line, both surface commuter lines, were built in less than three years.

Inside the Longze Station (Line 13)

The Batong Line at the Shuanqiao Station.

Elevated Line 5 station and platform at Tiantongyuan

The Beijing Subway network in February 2006

The interconnected cars of Line 5 have greater carrying capacity

In the summer of 2001, the city won the bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and accelerated plans to expand the subway. From 2002 and 2008, the city planned to invest ¥63.8 billion (US$7.69 billion) in subway projects. Most new subway construction projects were funded by loans from the Big Four state banks. Line 4 is funded through a joint-venture with the Hong Kong MTR.^[34] To achieve plans for 19 lines and 561 km by 2015, the city will invest a total of ¥200 billion ($29.2 billion).^[35] The next additions to the subway were surface commuter lines that linked to the north and east of the city. Line 13, a half loop that links the northern suburbs, first opened on the western half from Huilongguan to Xizhimen on September 28, 2002 and the entire line became operational on January 28, 2003.^[36] Batong Line, built as an extension to Line 1 to Tongzhou district, was opened as a separate line on December 27, 2003.^[37] Work on these two lines had begun respectively in December of 1999 and 2000.^[38] Ridership hit 607 million in 2004.

Line 5 came into operation on October 7, 2007. Construction had begun seven years earlier on September 25, 2000.^[39] It was the city's first north-south line, extending from the Songjiazhuang in the south to Tiantongyuan in the north. On the same day, subway fares were reduced ¥3 to ¥5 per ride, depending on the line and number of transfers, to a single flat fare of ¥2 with unlimited transfers. The lower fare policy caused the Beijing Subway to run a deficit of ¥600 million in 2007, which is expected to widen to ¥1 billion in 2008.^[35] The Beijing municipal government has covered these deficits to encourage mass transit use, which reduces traffic congestion and air pollution. On a total of 655 million rides delivered in 2007, the government's subsidy averages to be about ¥0.92 per ride.^[40]

On June 9, 2008, the use of paper tickets, hand checked by clerks for 38 years, was discontinued and replaced by electronic tickets that are scanned by automatic fare collection machines upon entry and exit of the subway. Stations are outfitted with touch screen vending machines that sell single-ride tickets and multiple-ride Yikatong fare cards.

On July 19, 2008, Line 10, the Olympic Branch Line, and the Airport Line were open for trial basis ahead of the Summer Olympic Games in August.^[41] To ensure public safety during the 2008 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, the subway initiated a three-month heightened security program from June 29 to September 20, 2008. During this period, riders were subject to searches of their persons and belongings at all stations. Security inspectors with metal detectors, X-Ray machines and sniffer dogs searched and confiscated articles banned from public transportation including "guns, ammunition, knives, explosives, flammable and radioactive materials, and toxic chemicals."^[42]

System Upgrades

Increasing Capacity. With new lines drawing more riders to the network and the fare reduction making rides more affordable, the subway has experienced severe overcrowding, especially during the rush hour. Operators have often been forced to skip transit stops to avoid delay-induced overcrowding on one line from spilling over to other lines. In response, the subway upgraded signal equipment to increase the frequency of trains and added to the capacity of subway trains. The minimum wait-time has been reduced to 2.5 min. for Lines 1 & 2; 3 min. for Lines 5, 13 & Batong; 3.5 min. for Line 10 and 15 min. for the Airport Line.^[43] Lines 13 and Batong have converted 4-car to 6-car trains.^[44][45]

Cellular Network Coverage. Mobile phones can currently be used throughout the system, except for in the tunnels between stations on Lines 1 and 2. There are plans for all lines and stations to have cellular coverage.^[46]

Access for the Physically Disabled. Each of the subway's 123 stations is equipped with ramps, lifts, or elevators to facilitate wheelchair access.^[47][48] Newer model train cars now provide space to accommodate wheelchairs.^[49] Automated audio announcements for incoming trains are available in all lines except for Line 1. Inside trains on all lines, audio stations announcements are made in Mandarin Chinese and English.

Automatic Fare Collection System. Each station has between two and fifteen ticket vending machines.^[50] Ticket vending machines in Line 5, 8, 10 stations and several of the Line 1 and 2 stations can also add credit to Yikatong cards.^[51]

Safety

Emergency Planning

After witnessing several serious subway accidents in the Republic of Korea (e.g. Daegu subway fire in February 2003), the Beijing Subway removed all shops and vendors from the inside of subway stations and installed self-illuminating exit signs to facilitate emergency evacuations. The popular underground mall at the Xidan station was also closed.

Accidents

On March 29, 2007, a construction site at the Suzhoujie station on Line 10 collapsed, burying six workers. [5]

See also

• List of Beijing Subway stations
• List of rapid transit systems

Notes

External links

• Official Beijing Subway Website
• Beijing Subway Information on UrbanRail.net
• The Beijing Guide
• Beijing Subway by Tom Carter Newspaper photo essay about the Beijing subway
• Beijing Subway at world.nycsubway.org
• Beijing Subway Fan Site (in Japanese only)

Beijing Subway Lines in operation 1 · 2 · 5 · 8 (Olympic Branch Line) · 10 · 13 · Airport Express · Batong Line Lines under construction 4 · 6 · 7 · 8 (Phase II)  · 9 · 10 (Phase II) · 14 · 15 · Daxing Line  · Yizhuang Line See also Transportation in Beijing