Beijing subway to ease Spring Festival travel rush with new measures

The Beijing subway will open temporary passenger trains and extend operating times to meet the needs of passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Monday.

Starting on Jan 21 and ending on March 1, the 2019 Spring Festival travel rush takes place 11 days earlier than the previous year. A total of 282 million passengers are expected to be transported on 16 subway lines during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, with an average daily passenger volume of 7.05 million, up about 3.5 percent year-on-year.

Beijing Railway Station on Line 2 will start operations 20 minutes earlier. Temporary trains will be added on Line 2, Line 7 and Line 9, and the operating times of the three lines will be extended.

Beijing West Railway Station on Line 9 will set up mobile ticket carts to improve the speed of ticket sales. Some 80,000 prepaid tickets will be made available to meet passenger demand. 

The Beijing subway also plans to roll out electronic subway tickets, enabling unlimited trips within fixed time periods. This type of ticket is designed mainly for short-term visitors to Beijing, which can reduce the number of card purchases and refunds, and reduce the number of manual ticket window operations at the same time.