Lightning-fast development spurs spread of speedy rail

Beijing 2022 was not only a world-class sporting spectacle, but it also gave media representatives a chance to witness the huge speed of change undergone in China’s capital since the Summer Games in 2008.

On Feb 14, 57 journalists from 36 Chinese and foreign media groups were invited by the 2022 Beijing Media Center to visit the city’s rail transit command center to explore the “secret” of Beijing’s high-quality development in the sector.

Inside the command center is a large rotunda surrounded by 13 screens showing the realtime operation of each rail line. The moving dots on-screen represent moving trains.

Beijing has formed a safe, convenient, efficient and green rail transit system. It has 27 metro lines, increased from two in 2001 when Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Games.

“Beijing’s successful bid for the Summer Games brought great opportunities for the development of its rail transit,” said Tong Mei, spokeswoman of the command center.

Last year, the city’s metro lines together handled nearly 10 million passenger trips per workday, accounting for 57% of the total number carried by urban public vehicles.

Compared with car travel, each subway passenger can reduce 77% of their carbon emissions, which means the total reduced carbon emissions can reach 7.38 million metric tons a year. This is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 410 million trees, experts said.

In addition to efficiency and ecological protection, the city’s urban rail transit is becoming more intelligent. For example, the west section of Metro Line 11, which opened at the end of 2021 and is also known as a line serving the 2022 Winter Olympics, features a fully automated driving mode under staff supervision at the beginning of the train’s operation.

Also, the command center has applied some cutting-edge technologies like big data analysis during the COVID-19 pandemic to control passenger flow and provide services.

Although China was behind developed countries in highspeed railway development, it has accumulated abundant experience in constructing all types of railways, including high-speed and railways at high altitudes and carrying heavy loads. The country has the longest high-speed rail mileage, which accounts for more than 66% of the world’s total.

“China’s high-speed trains run across rivers and mountains to reach all directions, from forests and snowy fields in the north to wetlands south of the Yangtze River, and from the desert in the west to the East China Sea,” said Zuo Wu, a senior engineer at the China State Railway Group.

“The country’s high-speed railway network covers 92% of the cities each with a population of more than 500,000 people. By the end of 2021, the operating mileage of China’s high-speed railway spanned 40,000 kilometers (24,855 miles),” he added.