Four new subway lines will be built to link Beijing and neighboring Hebei Province by 2021, as part of the region's integrated development, Hebei’s top economic planner has said.
The subway lines, together with other means of transportation, will cut the transfer time between the capital and cities in Hebei to less than one hour, according to a transportation plan released by the Hebei Development and Reform Commission for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).
According to the plan, one of the four subway routes - the Pinggu Line - will link Beijing's Pinggu and Tongzhou districts with Sanhe in Langfang, Hebei.
CGTN Photo
Preparatory work for the Pinggu Line has already started and is expected to be completed by 2021, the commission said.
The other three lines, which are in the planning phase, would link Yizhuang in Beijing with downtown Langfang; Daxing in Beijing with Gu'an in Langfang; and Fangshan in Beijing with Zhuozhou in Baoding.
The Beijing subway is the world’s busiest with 3.66 billion trips made in 2016, but authorities continue to seek to connect Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin into a megalopolis.
By 2015, five cities in Hebei - Langfang, Cangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Baoding and Tangshan - had become part of a "one-hour traffic circle" connecting them to the capital.
VCG Photo
However, large volumes of commuters traveling to and from Beijing every day require bus, subway or intercity railway services that provide faster and more frequent modes of transport.
To better meet demand, a 58 billion-yuan (8.4 billion US dollars) investment will see the total length of the urban rail transportation system in Hebei, including lines connecting Beijing, reach 80 kilometers by 2020.
Intercity railway lines that connect Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, not including subway lines, will be extended to a total of more than 400 kilometers.
The upgrade of the transportation system will aid in moving Beijing's non-capital functions, and the transfer of industries and people to Hebei, the plan said, adding that it will also create job opportunities and help develop the local economy.
