New subway, rail lines set to open for Beijing Olympics

The Associated Press , Beijing | Thu, 07/17/2008 6:17 PM | Sports

Beijing's two new subway lines and a new rail line should be running Sunday and serving millions of passengers by the opening of the Olympics in three weeks.

Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, said Sunday was the likely opening day, but hedged slightly while speaking Thursday to reporters. He said the lines would be operating no later than Monday, and suggested they might even be open on Friday or Saturday.

The new public transport should complement a strict vehicle reduction plan, that goes into force on Sunday, to cut Beijing's intense traffic.

The plan, designed to keep about half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles off the road during the Olympics, will allow vehicles on the road every other day depending on even or odd registration numbers.

The two subway lines will directly serve Olympic visitors.

Line 10 is 25 kilometers long and runs southeast to northwest. The second, 5-kilometer subway line will serve the Olympic Green area and main venues like the National Stadium and National Aquatics Center.

The rail line going into operation is the Airport Line, which runs 28 kilometers from the airport to Beijing's central business district.

The three new lines, which officials say cost 22.3 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion), are behind schedule in opening.

"Since a lot of suppliers are involved -- for example, the railway and signal equipment is produced by joint enterprises and some of the signal suppliers are from other countries -- we needed a lot of coordination and joint efforts," Zhou said.

"In this process there were some technical problems that could not be avoided."

Officials said subway Line 10 would be used during the Olympics by 850,000 passengers daily. Traffic on the Olympic venue line is expected to be 220,000 with the airport line serving 30,000, Zhou said. (****)

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