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Residents of the northwestern regions of Beijing may happily say farewell to time-consuming traffic as the west line of the city's urban railway goes into operation on Saturday.
After trial runs without passenger loads from September 16 to September 25, a total of 30 electric trains are set to carry thousands of people every day along the west line, which goes from Huoying in the north to Xizhimen in the city proper.
The east line, from Huoying to Dongzhimen, is scheduled to begin operation in late January, according to the Beijing Subway Operation Company.
The first southbound train leaves Huoying station at 6 am daily. The first northbound train leaves Xizhimen at 6:32 am. The last trains depart at 8:28 pm and 9:00 pm respectively, according to the company.
The full west line run takes half an hour. The ticket price is 3 yuan (36 US cents) one way.
The fare structure may be revised to range between 2 yuan (24 US cents) and 5 yuan (60 US cents) based on distance after the whole line is completed and an Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system is to be adopted later next year.
The entire urban railway system runs a distance of 40.85 kilometres and has 16 stations. It is in an inverted U shape, connecting the vast northern regions of the capital with the two transportation hubs of Xizhimen and Dongzhimen in the west and east.
It is expected to markedly cut the travel time from the northern neighbourhoods to central Beijing.
The electric trains can run at a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour. The average speed is expected to be just over 41 kilometres per hour, according to the Beijing Urban Transit Railway Co Ltd.
The railway, built with an investment of 6.6 billion yuan (US$798 million), is an environmentally friendly transportation alternative.
To reduce the noise caused by the trains, special acoustic Celotex boards were set up along some sections of the railway.
During construction, 960,000 cubic metres of garbage were cleared from along the route. Now trees and grass have been planted along the route in the northern suburbs where there used to be dirt and disorder.
The first 30 trains, which are being put into operation today, were chosen from those already running on the city's subway and then retrofitted. They are equipped with air conditioning and electric heating.
The second batch of trains is expected to be put into use by mid-December. Public security officials with the urban railway company warned residents to keep away from and not to cross the enclosed urban railway.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2002)
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