First Beijing commuter train plans revealed

A Beijing official revealed initial plans for rail links between two Hebei cities and Beijing by a new railway, allowing commuters to travel to Beijing within an hour, as part of long-term plans to integrate the region further, media reported on Wednesday.

Beijing will ramp up the integrated development of Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin by facilitating easier transportation this year and the 70-kilometer-long Pinggu Line will be the first new railway running through the region, an official from the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office told the Legal Mirror.

Specific details of the Pinggu Line have not yet been announced but stations will be built far enough apart to guarantee they will be able to travel at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour.

According to a traffic analysis report released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport in 2013, Beijing residents spent an average of nearly two hours commuting daily and more and more people have began to use rail services.

"Compared with other means of transportation between cities, railways can carry more passengers at a lower cost and have a higher speed," Zhang Zhuting, a professor at the Transport Management Institute of the Ministry of Transport, told the Global Times.

Better rail links are important for the development of the region as interurban rail networks have helped integrate the Pearl River Delta region, Zhang added.

The preliminary plan says that one station each will be built in the cities of Sanhe and Yanjiao in Hebei. 300,000 Yanjiao residents reportedly commute to Beijing for work every day.

The governments of Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin signed contracts with the China Railway Corporation in December to jointly establish a company with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan ($1.59 billion) to promote the development of transportation infrastructure in the region.

"The Pinggu Line will be efficient in relieving the stresses placed on Beijing's population and transportation infrastructure, making more people buy houses outside Beijing, but it might also raise house price in these places," Zhang said.