One of Beijing's most inconvenient subway transfers will be a thing of the past as the city announces it will merge subway service on the Beijing Metro Line 1 and the Batong into a single, unified service.
Posted to an official municipal online platform, the report said the merger may become operational as soon as next year.
Although both Line 1 and the Batong line are east-west subway lines that lie on the same path, commuters have had to transfer to the other line at Sihui and Sihui East Station in order to continue their journey.
However, any plans for unifying the two subway lines were stymied by the fundamental differences between the two subway lines.
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Built in 2003, the Batong Line was built to help alleviate pressure on the aging Line 1 subway line. However, the age difference between the two lines meant that they had incompatible designs, vehicle configuration, and signal systems.
The Line 1 subway line became operational in 1971 and had been Beijing's busiest subway until the loop on Line 10 was completed in 2013.
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Nonetheless, Line 1 began its march towards modernization in 2015 when its signal system was given a retrofit. And just last year, Line 1 began work that would end its status as one of Beijing's few remaining subway lines without safety barriers on its platforms.
Calls for the Line 1/Batong merger began as far back as 2010 by local lawmakers, but, as no progress was made, problems with overcrowding continued.
Sihui Station was equipped at one time with platform-mounted "speed barriers" (shown above) that slow down passengers as they enter the occupant-less train. However, the effort wasn't enough for one Beijing commuter who had several of his ribs broken while queuing for the subway in 2015.
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In the future, Beijing's development of its subway system will surpass that of Shanghai, currently the Chinese city with the longest subway.
Construction on the western expansion of Line 6 that will connect it with Line 1 will begin at the end of the year while construction on Line 12 is described as being 86 percent completed, prompting estimates that the northern-located 29.3 kilometer-long subway line will be completed by 2021.
Next year may also see the opening of the 4.45 kilometer-long south extension of Batong Line from its current Tuqiao Station terminus.
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E-Mail: charlesliu1 (at) qq (dot) com
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