New card reduces travel headaches for interregional commuters
A new travel card will enable passengers to use all subway systems throughout Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province by the end of this year, as part of efforts to promote the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
Currently, one type of travel card sold in Tianjin and Hebei can be used on buses in Beijing, but not on the capital’s subway system.
“In the past three years, the region has made progress in many areas, including road construction, transportation, energy saving and reducing emissions,” said Rong Jun, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.
Since 2014, a total of 39 bus routes to Beijing have been opened in Hebei’s Yanjiao, Zhuozhou and Langfang, with the total monthly passenger count hitting a record 11 million, the commission said.
At the end of 2014, a new national highway was opened, reducing the driving time between Beijing and Hebei’s Fengning county to two hours from the previous four and a half hours.
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.
Also in 2015, three bullet train lines were opened between Beijing and Yanjiao, about 35 kilometers east of the capital, benefiting thousands of commuters.
Rong said a priority for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei this year will be to tackle traffic congestion, which is a significant concern in Yanjiao.
The city is home to more than 500,000 people, most of whom work in Beijing. Many of the city’s residents choose to live there because it is close to the capital and the cost of housing is much lower. However, this has led to horrendous rush-hour traffic congestion on the road linking the two.
Xu Fang, 33, lives in Yanjiao and used to work in Beijing, spending about one and a half hours every day commuting.