Beijing yesterday began operating a north-south trunk subway
line on a trial basis, offering 2 yuan (27 cents) fares.
After four years and nine months of construction, Line 5, which
connects Tiantongyuan, Changping District, in the north and
Songjiazhuang, Fengtai District, in the south, opened to passengers
at 2 pm yesterday.
It takes 49 minutes to cover all the 23 stations along the
27.6-km rail line.
The line passes through key Beijing tourist sites including
Dongdan, Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) and large communities like
Tiantongyuan.
"As a north-south artery line, the opening of Line 5 will
greatly alleviate the traffic pressure on the ground," Wang Qishan,
mayor of Beijing, said.
"And the unified low ticket price will attract more people to
take the subway to go out."
It only costs passengers 2 yuan to take the city's subway lines
without limits on distance and transfer times.
The operation of the new line, the fifth one, boosts the total
length of the capital city's track transport network to 142 km and
the number of stations to 93.
"It is a demonstration of the city's determination to give
priority to the development of the public transportation system,"
Wang said.
"Its successful operation ushered in a golden era for the city's
construction of subways."
Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing municipal committee
of communications, said that by next year the city would have about
200 km of operational subway lines.
As a long-term plan, Beijing will by 2015 have a total 561 km of
subway lines, he said.
People queued in long lines to be among the first to ride the
new rail network yesterday.
"It is one of the most important reasons why I bought my house
in Tiantongyuan," said Zhang Xin, a clerk who works in the Guomao
area of Chaoyang District.
The new line could cut his daily commute from nearly two hours
to half an hour, he said.
Jia Peng, director of the press office of the Beijing Mass
Transit Railway Operation Corp Ltd, the city's railway lines
operator, said that temporary safety measures, such as setting
passenger limits, have been introduced for the one-year trial.
"We need the cooperation and understanding of passengers and we
will take all means to ensure their safety," he said.
(China Daily October 8, 2007)