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Subway construction started in China's capital in 1965. The first stretch,
which opened between the city's railway station and Pingguoyuan, included
today's western branch of Line 1 and the southern part of Line 2.
In 1987, the circular line was finished (16 km) and both lines started operating
separately. In the 1990's an eastern extension of Line 1 was built,
the so-called Fu Ba Line, to Sihuidong (formerly shown as BA Wang Fan)
opened for trial in Oct. 1999 for the People's Republic's 50th anniversary.
The new section (13.5 km) was eventually connected to the western section of Line
1 on 24 June 2000 which had been upgraded to ATO operation. Now there are
talks about a further extension to the east.
The entire Line 1 from Pingguoyuan to Sihuidong is now
38 km long and provides transfer to Ring Line 2 twice, at Fuxingmen and
at Jianguomen. Ring Line 2 is 16 km, so the total network operating
in 2000 is 54 km. Most stations have central platforms and are 118m long, but
only 10 have escalators. 4 or 6-car-trains are used, which are equipped with
acoustic station announcement. For future extensions of the network (8 lines)
some stations have already been built as transfer stations: Xizhimen, Dongsishitiao, Jianguomen, Yonghegong and Jishuitan.
Construction of "CityRail" (Line 13 in the overall "rapid transit" planning)
started in December 1999. The semicircular line with 16 stations runs from Xizhimen to Dongzhimen (both
are stations on the circle Line 2). The 40.8 km line is mainly above
ground, either elevated (7.7 km) or at grade (30.3km). After the western section
(20.6km) went into operation on 28 Sept. 2002, the eastern section will be
opened in January 2003.
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