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The Beijing municipal government has approved the construction of subway Line 15, which is expected to start within the year.

The approval was confirmed by a document, dated Tuesday and posted at the website of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Urban Planning (BMCUP).

By the approved plan, Line 15 will take a west-east orientation and runs 45.7 kilometers, of which 32 km will be beneath the ground.

Line 15 will be between northern Ring Road 4 and 5. It will start from Xiyuan in Haidian District and end at east of Chaobai River in Shunyi District in the eastern suburbs. There will be 21 stops.

It will be built in two stages. The east section of the subway between Wangjing West Stop and Hedong Stop in Shunyi will be built first.

Line 15 will be finished in 2015.

When it is finished, Line 15 will help alleviate transport pressure on areas around the Olympic Common Domain, where famed Bird’s Nest or National Stadium and the Water Cube or National Aquatic Center are clustered, said BMCUP in the document.

Other details about Line 15, such as the cost and term, are not available at the moment.

Beijing has 200 km of subways in service, most of which are in the northern part of the city.

It is determined to vigorously expand track transport in the years to come and is hoping to form a subway network supported by 19 separate lines totaling 561 km by 2015.

The city’s spending on infrastructure projects alone will top 160 billion yuan (about 23.53 billion U.S. dollars) this year, and Line 15 is included in the spending list, said Liu Yinchun, deputy chief of the municipal committee of development and reform in January.

By 2015, a total of 8.8 million daily travels, or one fourth of the total journeys made by residents in downtown areas, will be undertaken by metro, comparing to 3.8 million daily travels at present.

The national capital will spend 51.8 billion yuan (about 7.62 billion U.S. dollars) in track transport development this year, according to statistics disclosed by the municipal committee of development and reform.

Line 4, a north-to-south subway under construction, is expected to be completed and put into service this year. This will increase the length of Beijing’s subway in service to 230 km, and this mileage will go up to 300 km by 2010.

New traffic measures that will see up to 800,000 cars taken off Beijing’s road every working day, come into effect today.  All cars with license plates ending with either a 1 or 6 are not permitted to be driven within the Fifth Ring Road between 6am to 9pm this evening. Announced in late September, see our earlier post here, the plan is to have cars with number plates ending with certain digits banned from the roads within the Fifth Ring Road one day a week. In the past few days Beijing authorities have released more detailed information about the plan:

Fines
For the first month of implementation drivers caught taking their vehicles to the road on restricted days will get off with a verbal warning. After this initial period, those caught flaunting the ban will be fined RMB 100. However, no points will be deducted from the driver’s license.

Extended Subway Hours
In order to support the new car restriction measures, the Beijing Subway Company has announced that they will extend the operating hours of the city’s subway lines starting this week, though details of the new running times have still not been released. In a related move, public transport authorities will also increase the number of bus lines servicing the first/final stops on the various subway lines.

More Buses
Starting from today, the city’s transport bureau will increase the number of buses on Beijing’s streets by 10% to 18,000 vehicles. The bureau has also announced that 10 of the 34 Olympic bus lines will be retained indefinitely and that these services will now operate from 6am daily. They’ve also increased the number of evening services by 3 lines so that there are now 15 lines operating overnight. They’ve also extended the operating hours of other bus lines.

Varied Office and Business Hours
The office hours of various unspecified industries and work units scattered across the city have been staggered to start at 8.30, 9 and 9.30am to help relieve peak hour traffic congestion. The office  hours of national government bodies, Beijing government offices and schools remain the same. Business hours of most of Beijing’s large department stores have been set as 10am-10pm. Most stores we’re already operating on this time frame but some department stores have been forced to push back the time they open by half and hour.

An Added Layer of Complexity
Like the rules of a complex card game, the new regulations state that each month the days that certain cars are forced to remain in the garage will change. So although cars with registration plates ending in 1 or 6 won’t be able to drive on Monday’s for the whole month, come November they’ll be off the road on some other day of the week. The traffic bureau will announce the measures a week before the start of every month.

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On July 19th,2008, Beijing subway line 10 serve the travellers for the first time. The is the only subway line which travel through the Olympic certer area. Some of the people and most of them are reporters got the chance to feel the new subway for the first time.

On Sunday morning, Beijing’s subway management company revealed that travelers would have a 30% shorter wait time for trains on line 2.

According to Legal Evening News, beginning next week, during peak hours, trains will arrive at stations along line 2 every 2.5 minutes, down one minute from the current 3.5 minute interval.

A subway engineer compared line 2’s signal system with the human brain, as they both require a structure of coordination. The system of the subway line has just been renovated; based on wireless technology, trains can be arranged in a more efficient manner.

The new system has been successfully tried and tested, earning the highest security grade Europe can give.

If any problems arise with the train or the overall operating system, the first thing the new technology will authorize is the stopping of the train, ensuring passenger safety.

According to the plans, before the Olympics begin, all old trains on line 2 will be taken out and new ones put in. In addition, the tracks will be replaced so that commuters will not feel as much turbulence or hear as much noise while on the train.

Some passengers have expressed concerns that line 2 trains often “stop-and-go.” A Beijing subway management company representative remarked that this phenomenon, caused by a clash of signals between the train and the operating system, would be solved by the time the Beijing Games begin.

Even with the new system in place, the mix-up of signals will take a bit of time to correct; signals in individual trains and sections of track will need to be adjusted, but the system is getting steadier and steadier. For example, on April 12, there were 30 instances of the system giving out unsafe directions, but on May 12, there were less than 10, and in the past few days, the system has seen less than 5 a day, said an engineer. ¡¡

Beijing is upgrading its metro ticketing system with magnetic cards set to replace the current paper tickets in two months.

The Beijing subway control center said on Tuesday that single-journey magnetic tickets are expected to be put into use in late May on all of the city’s metro lines. Automatic cashiers to sell and collect the cards are undergoing testing.

In 2006, Beijing introduced a refillable smart card for regular public transportation users. Subway riders who don’t own smart cards must purchase paper tickets.

Under the new system, commuters without the smart card can buy a magnetic card from an automatic cashier at the station and return it before leaving the subway. The system is similar to the one currently used in Shanghai.

Each magnetic card will be printed with Beijing’s subway map, including the current five lines and four new routes soon to be in use.

During the Games, subway trains will depart at 3 minute intervals.

According to the Beijing Evening News, subway line 10 and the Olympic Lateral will start test runs on Thursday. Planners have revealed that during Games-time, wait time for trains will be minimized to a mere three minutes.

Leaders are paying close attention to safety and other concerns regarding the subway lines during August and September.

According to the Beijing subway company, line 10 and the Olympic Lateral initiated test runs last month, but the versions starting Thursday will be more complete trials, emphasizing departure time between trains with the goal of 3 minute breaks by the time the Olympics roll around.

In June, the subway lines will be open to the public. Travelers wishing to get on the Olympic Lateral must go through security checks at Beitucheng Station in order to ensure safety in the Olympic zone.

Beijing subways will try to run round-the-clock on the opening and closing days of the Olympic Games.

The move was aimed at relieving heavy traffic on the two days, Aug. 8 and Aug. 24, while the operating hours would be extended on other days of the Games, Tuesday’s Beijing Daily quoted an official with the Beijing metro operation company as saying, without giving further details.

The subway is expected to carry the bulk of passengers to the National Stadium, also known as the “bird’s nest”, on the opening day when about 100,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony, he said.

The No. 10 route linking the stadium with the downtown area was expected to have intervals between trains shortened from four minutes to three minutes during the ceremonies, said the official.

Subway stations would have “green channels” for ticket holders, Games staff and volunteers, who will be exempted from paying the 2-yuan fare during the Olympics.

According to the morning report, he construction of plazas at the entrances of the phase one stations on Beijing Subway Line 10 will complete in early May.

It is reported that because of the plaze construction, eight bus station will be relocated.

The 21 station plazas will center on one of four functions: transit, shopping and commerce, travel and leisure services, and residential.

The subway line’s phase one plan also includes the construction of parking lots at four stations that will accommodate a total of 377 cars. The Bagou Station parking lot will have room for 150 cars, Anzhenmen Station’s 100 cars, Shaoyaoju Station’s 50 cars and Shuangjing Station’s 77 cars.

In addition, all of the line’s stations, excluding Chuhujialou Station and Guomao Station, will have a bicycle parking area.

 Another new subway line 4 which brings travelers north to south (and vice versa), will be completed soon. Then Besides the exacting subway line 1, 2, 13  5 and  batong line , there will be 7 subway lines in Beijing.

Subway line 4 will service Fengtai District, Xuanwu District, Xicheng District, and Haidian District. The southernmost stop is located in Fengtai District while the northernmost stop is located in Haidian District. The entire length of the subway line is 28.18 kilometers and is dotted with 24 stops, 4 of which are transfer stations for lines 1, 2, 10, and 13.

Beijing is upgrading its metro ticketing system with magnetic cards set to replace the current paper tickets in two months.

The Beijing subway control center said on Tuesday that single-journey magnetic tickets are expected to be put into use in late May on all of the city’s metro lines. Automatic cashiers to sell and collect the cards are undergoing testing.

In 2006, Beijing introduced a refillable smart card for regular public transportation users. Subway riders who don’t own smart cards must purchase paper tickets.

Under the new system, commuters without the smart card can buy a magnetic card from an automatic cashier at the station and return it before leaving the subway. The system is similar to the one currently used in Shanghai.

Each magnetic card will be printed with Beijing’s subway map, including the current five lines and four new routes soon to be in use.