The Beijing Metro lines will run 24 hours on the opening and closing day of the Beijing Olympics for the first time in the city to serve spectators, Xinhua news agency reported today.

There will be 90,000 spectators and more than 10,000 staff on duty in the National Gymnasium, or the "Bird Nest", at the opening ceremony on August 8 and closing ceremony on August 24, the report said, citing an official of the city's Metro authority.

The city's Metro lines will begin to run at a minimum interval of three minutes between two Metro trains half an hour before the end of the two ceremonies.

The lines will also extend their running hours during Olympic events, the report added.

The lines will offer free rides to spectators and volunteers of the games. The city's Metro authority will set special pass-ways in Metro stations for them.

Currently, Beijing has four rail lines totaling 114 kilometers, carrying 2.1 million passengers a day. The city will have nine lines totaling 200 kilometers by the end of this year, and 19 lines totaling 561.5 kilometers by 2020.

The Metro authority began renovations to the city's old Metro Line 1 and Line 2 for the Olympics in October. The city's government has spent nearly four billion yuan (US$526 million) on these projects.

A total of 120 new trains will be added on Line 1, Beijing's east-west trunk line, to cut intervals to two and a half minutes by the end of June next year.

One hundred and forty-four new trains will be added on the Line 2, an underground loop line which runs parallel to the second ring road in downtown Beijing, previous reports said.

(Shanghai Daily March 25, 2008)