Subway Line 15: Opening soon!

From next week, Beijing's subway system is set to open five new lines - four are suburban lines linking the far outskirts of the city with little relevance to Beijing's expat community - but the new Line 15 will finally connect Wangjing to the rest of the inner city subway network. Although confirming an exact opening date has been difficult, it seems that the first phase of line 15 will be opening on December 28th, despite obvious aesthetic details still needing to be completed.

Touted as Beijing’s deepest subway at 38 meters below the ground, long suffering residents of Wangjing will finally be connected to the subway system. At present the area only has a rather than a token station on Line 13 several kilometers and many bus stops away from downtown Wangjing. A brand new transfer bridge will allow commuters to avoid the Black Cab hawkers that lurk outside Wangjing West station.

Whilst the opening of line 15 won’t be as significant as the opening of line 4 last year, those who live and work in Wangjing will notice the considerable difference in travel times between Wangjing and the rest of Beijing compared to the current lengthy bus journeys required to reach lines 13 or 10. By early 2011, the first phase of Line 15 will journey as far out as Shunyi.

However, reports suggest that despite the chronic overcrowding of the subway system, stations and trains on Line 15 will accommodate the standard Beijing size of six carriages so we can presume that peak hour usage of the subway will still be as congested as ever. It also needs to be mentioned that Line 15 will not be the panacea for all who live in Wangjing. The subway extension into the area is still in its infancy and those who live closer to the Lido district unfortunately won’t be experiencing the benefits of Line 15. Nevertheless, for those who live in central Wangjing and grown weary of the sardine tin buses, Line 15 will be a fantastic belated Christmas gift from the Beijing Subway.

For those who are interested the four suburban lines that will be opening are: The Changping Line which journeys northwest from Xierqi (Line 13) to Changping, the Daxing Line which will be a continuation of Line 4 from Gongyixiqiao to Tiangongyuan, the Yizhuang Line which will be a continuation of Line 5 from Songjiazhuang to Yizhuang Railway Station and finally the strange Fangxiang Line in the city's Southwest which oddly has no current connection to the Beijing Subway network.