Thanks to commenter James Davies for alerting me to the big news in 新京报/The Beijing News that next year Beijing could have 13 new subway lines under construction. Now, it’s already 9 pm, Monday is my busiest day, and I have class at 8 tomorrow morning, and the computer I’m using does a piss-poor job of rendering Chinese, so I don’t really want to translate the whole article, but James says:
It says if you include the work already started on line 7, next year work’ll be underway on a total of 13, read it, 13 new subway lines (think they’re including the what will presumably be ‘light rail’ Fangshan, and other such lines, but anyway).
I read in the article given pretty huge importance on 新京报/The Beijing News’ front page:
明年一季度，7号线、14号线、15号线一期、昌平线、房山线和西郊线将确定开工建设。同时，争取明年开工的还有市郊铁路S1线。
In the first quarter of next year, the start dates of construction on Line 7, Line 14, the first phase of Line 15, the Changping Line, the Fangshan Line and the Western Suburbs Line will be decided. At the same time, the start date of construction on the suburban rail S1 Line has still to be decided.
此外，北京市今年在建地铁线路有7条，分别为地铁4号线、10号线二期、8号线二期、6号线一期、9号线、大兴线和亦庄线。这样，明年北京在建地铁线路将达到13条。
In addition, the subway lines under construction in Beijing this year are Line 4, phase 2 of Line 10, phase 2 of Line 8, Line 6, Line 9 and the Daxing and Yizhuang Lines. This way Beijing will have up to 13 subway lines under construction.
James suggests in his comment that the first of these new subway lines will come online in 2010, but this snippet suggests maybe next year for Line 4: “其中4号线将于明年开通。”
Then I come across this paragraph:
未来两年，北京交通轨道建设将加大投入，加快建设，完成900亿元投资建设。2015年将达到560公里，做到在 三环以内，七八百米就能找到地铁入口，四环以内平均步行一公里即可到达地铁站，承担50%-60%的公共交通压力。中关村、西站、CBD等地区，都将有多 条地铁轨道通过。
In the next two years, Beijing’s rail transport will greatly increase and construction will be sped up, completing construction worth 90 billion yuan. In 2015 it will reach 560 kilometres, with a subway station every 7- or 800 metres within the Third Ring Road, or on average every kilometre within the Fourth Ring Road, shouldering 50 – 60% of the public transport burden. Zhongguancun, the West Station and the CBD area will all be served by several subway lines.
The article is followed up with related news that, to be honest, I just can’t be arsed reading right now. I’m buggered, and neither the Daxing Line nor safety inspections on subway construction sites can grab enough of my attention for me to bother with at this point.
But it is all good news, and I will be very interested to see how this develops.
