Trunk rail network key to coordinated growth

Beijing will continue to improve its transportation infrastructure with rail as the backbone, creating an advanced hub for commuters while boosting high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the coordinated development strategy of the BeijingTianjin-Hebei region, and over the past decade, a grid of national trunk rail lines, with Beijing and Tianjin as core hubs and linking cities in Hebei province, has been basically completed. The BeijingZhangjiakou high-speed railway, Beijing-Harbin high-speed railway and others have opened, achieving full coverage in regional cities at or above the prefecture level. As a result, travel time between the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas such as Northeast China, the Central Plain and Shandong Peninsula has been significantly shortened.

Internal connections within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration have become closer, with the opening of lines such as the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway extension, the Beijing-Tangshan Intercity Railway, the BeijingXiong’an Intercity Railway, the Tianjin-Daxing Airport Intercity Railway and the Tianjin-Baoding Railway. Adjacent cities within the region have realized basic railway access within 90 minutes, and all six adjacent areas to Beijing have achieved access within one hour, forming the “one-hour transportation circle” of the BeijingXiong’an-Tianjin-BaodingTangshan zone.

As of the end of 2023, the total operating railway mileage in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region reached 9,400 kilometers, an increase of 25.3 percent from 2014.

Meanwhile, a number of national highways such as the BeijingKunming

Expressway and TianjinShijiazhuang Expressway have also been completed and opened to traffic.

Currently, the Beijing-TianjinHebei region forms a national highway backbone network centered on Beijing, consisting of seven radial lines, two longitudinal lines and three transverse lines. By the end of 2023, total mileage of expressways in the three provinces and cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region reached 11,000 kilometers, up 38 percent compared with the end of 2014.

Starting from 2015, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei jointly issued the Transportation Union interoperable card, gradually realizing “onecard access” in major cities in the region and extending coverage nationwide. More than 7 million cards have been issued in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, achieving interconnection with 336 cities nationwide.

The “world-class airport cluster” in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has been solidified. Data from the Beijing Bureau of Statistics show passenger throughput at Beijing Capital International Airport exceeded 770 million over the past decade, with more than 5 million flight takeoffs and landings, leading the country. As of the end of 2023, the opening of Beijing Daxing International Airport ensured the operation of 764,500 flights, serving 93.97 million passengers.

The development of regional transportation has supported decentralization of non-capital functions in Beijing, along with the orderly relocation of industries and population to the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center in Tongzhou and Xiong’an New Area.

With the convenient transportation link between Beijing and Xiong’an, more than 200 central State-owned enterprises have established subsidiaries and branches in Xiong’an New Area.