Qingdao Special: New rail station strengthens Qingdao's role in region

The Qingdao North Railway Station, the largest transport hub in Shandong, officially started operation on Jan 10.

Located at the old site of Cangkou Train Station, only 16 kilometers from the city's airport, it connects railway lines with three subway lines, creating a hub connecting Qingdao to major metropolitan areas in the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas. It will also connect another four high-speed railways in the pipeline that links Qingdao to Weihai, Jinan and Dalian in Liaoning province.

"The train station marks a new era for the Shandong Peninsula railway network, with a much higher efficiency and density," said Liu Yungang, director at the development office of Qingdao Transport Business District, a business zone around the train station. "It almost creates a one-hour-city circle across Shandong province and turns the province into an urban agglomeration."

As a significant transport hub, it is designed to receive 100,000 passengers each day with 75 trains, and transport 30 million passengers each year.

The train station also links the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge and the Pan-Jiao Bay Road, providing advantages to build a dynamic new urban hub featuring modern service sectors, especially commerce, business offices, logistics and tourism, Liu said.

"The Qingdao Transport Business District will rise as a new growth engine for the city and the most important joining point for the city's overall expansion, connecting the east, west and north coasts of the Jiaozhou Bay."

Areas around the train station as well as its underground space will be developed into the core business area spreading across 1.9 square kilometers, according to an announcement from the business area.

huqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/21/2014 page12)