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 goessintosoperation on September 28.

　　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. The east line is scheduled to begin operation in late January of 2003, according to Beijing Subway Operation Company.

　　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 cut the travel time from the northern neighborhoods to central Beijing.

　　Different from ordinary rail line, the rail line in downtown Beijing is laid down with slagless rail bottom. 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 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.

　　Rapidly growing economic strength and Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games enabled the city to attract sufficient investment for the projects.

　　Beijing plans to invest a total of63.8 billion yuan (US.78 billion) in eight planned light rail projects in the next six years, city planning officials said. The projects include two links from the city proper to the Olympic village for the 2008 Olympic Games and to Beijing's international airport.

　　The city planners said Beijing was expected to build 156.7 km of new subway and light rail systems, increasing the total length to more than 300 km by 2008.

　　That is the golden key

　　Nearly all cities in China are striving to enhance their road construction; however, autos in those cities are also increasing rapidly. Thus traffic jam can not be alleviated; further more it brings lot of pollution.

　　The austere current situation shows that to build roads blindly does not make sense. We should learn the experiences from other countries to develop urban railway. That is the golden key.

　　By the end of last year, China had a total of 143.4 kilometres of metro line in operation in the four big cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and South China's Guangzhou. Considering China's economic growth rate and urban population, the level of rail transportation use stands relatively low.

　　Beijing as a super city has a population of more than 13 million while autos with Beijing licenses amount to 1.8 million. Traffic jam is very common in Beijing. Compared with Beijing, Tokyo also has large population, but its traffic is quite convenient for that there are nearly 2000 kms urban railway including light railway and subway. There are only 55 kms under operation in Beijing before September 28.2002.

　　The life of a 20-year-old Shanghai girl was cut short in December 2001 when she was shoved off a subway platformsintosthe path of an oncoming train by the crowd rushing home. Such accident also happened this year in Beijing. The accident raised concern among authorities in major Chinese cities that either have subways in operation or are considering building a light-transit system to ease road traffic.

　　Today's subways are as crowded as buses used to be in the late 1980s,?said Cui Mingdong, an engineer in Shanghai. Shanghai's two subway routes carry 700,000 passengers daily. The same problems are found also in Beijing, home of China's first subway system. During the one-week holiday starting on October 1, China's National Day, Beijing's subway carried a total of 14 million passengers, a record high volume compared with the city's 13 million population.

　　To address the bottlenecks that are occurring regularly, the Chinese government is determined to spend more on subway construction.

　　It was saying that China had 20 cities under the planning and preparation of building subways and light tracks. About 167 kilometers of railway lines were under construction.

　　A senior railway official pointed out Chinese cities around the country need to develop diversified urban rail networks so as to save money and energy.

　　Tianjin--The largest port city in North and the second Chinese city to build a subway, plans to invest 6.9 billion yuan (830 million U.S. dollars) for an additional 26-kilometer underground railway, which is due to be completed by 2005. Tianjin's current subway, which wentsintosoperation in 1984, only handles 10,000 passengers per day.

　　Guangzhou--Construction of a subway network was approved in 1989 and construction started in 1993. Line 1 was inaugurated on 28 June 1999. It was built as a turnkey project by a consortium led by Siemens and has a total length of 18.5 km with 16 stations. Line 2 (23.3 km) with 20 stations (17 underground, 2 elevated and 1 at grade) is due to start service in April 2003, more than a year ahead of schedule.

　　Work commenced on the construction of Metro Line 3 in Jan. 2002. Line 3 will cover a distance of 34.7 km with 17 stations along its route. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2007.

　　Nanjing--Construction of Metro Line 1 began in 2000 for completion in September 2005. Line 1 will be 17 km (10.62 km is underground, 6.37 km is above ground) with 13 stations.

　　Shenyang--Shenyang planed to build five urban railway lines spanning a total length of 182.5 km starting in the year 2001, local officials said. The network will be composed of underground, above-ground and elevated railways. The first phase, with a total length of 22.2 km and investment of 6.51 billion yuan (781.2 million US dollars), is expected to be finished in 2006, said the officials.

　　Officials say that they have negotiated with over 30 financial groups and enterprises both at home and abroad on financing issues and engineering technique exchanges for the project.

　　Light railway or subway?

　　China announced early in September its plans to construct more than 800 kilometres of railway in China's urban centers by 2010, most of which will be built underground.

　　Ten cities around the country are building 15 metro lines right now, but only one light rail. These railways, with a total length of 383 kilometres, are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005, according to the ministry.

　　According to Zhu Jun, director of the railway division of State-owned China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, asgroupsof medium-sized cities have had their metro-rail projects approved by the State Council - China's cabinet - and are preparing to start construction in a few years. The approvals come at a time when some experts are questioning the need for all these underground rails.

　　Many cities around the country have been ambitiously?planning or building uniform underground railways since the late 1990s, said Zhou Yimin, a chief official with the consultancysgroupsunder the Ministry of Railways.

　　襂n some cases it is a waste,?noted Zhou. Urban railway networks have proven to be effective tools to ease urban transport congestion and boost local economies. But different cities and various areas of a metropolis need to choose an appropriate type of railway suited to local transport demand and development strategies. This does not necessarily mean luxurious?underground railways, according to Zhou.

　　Zhou's remarks were made at a forum on the development of the country's urban rail networks, part of the Metro Shanghai Exhibition 2002. He was a rare official voice speaking against the country's current underground (metro) railway craze.

　　The underground vehicles, which run 30 to 40 kilometres faster per hour, and at a higher frequency than light-rail trains, naturally use much more energy, according to sources with the China International Engineering Consulting Corporation.

　　Underground railway systems are proper and necessary for the bustling downtown areas of metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, said Zhou. But in some scenic coastal cities, medium-sized cities and big-city suburbs, light-transit systems may be more economical, said Zhou. He warned that the current expansion of underground railway in China may be excessive.