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Beijing to build world's longest metro

(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-20 15:09

A 5.91-kilometre section of Line 10 is aimed at easing travel relating to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Zhao said Line 11 would be finished in 2012 and link with Line 10. The new loop line created by the two linked lines will thread through major city centres including Zhongguancun technology zone, the CBD and the Olympic zone.

Currently four metro lines serve Beijing. Lines 1 and 2 span 54 kilometres, while Line 13 and Line Batong cover 61 kilometres. Together they carry 1.5 million travellers every day.

Beyond building new subway lines, transportation experts have been exploring other possibilities for the city's underground space to help ease the traffic pressure.

During a conference this weekend entitled the "International Academic Conference on Underground Space," the Beijing Urban Planning Commission and Beijing Urban Planning and Designing Research Institute jointly released a new plan proposing the construction of six underground expressways by 2020 to further ease traffic congestion, mainly within the second and third rings.

Shi Xiaodong, a senior planner with the planning and design research centre, said moving more transportation underground will help eliminate noise pollution and reduce traffic in the old urban area.

However, Duan Liren, an expert with the Beijing Transportation Management Engineering Institute, warned the involved officials to be cautious about developing the underground express system.

"Such a large-scale underground expressway system would be unprecedented in the world, and we have little experience to draw upon. The technological difficulties and construction costs of this system will exceed those of the metro system," Duan was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.