Beijing Roads Lost the City RMB 8 Billion Last Year, Nearly RMB 60 Billion Overall

Despite generating almost seven billion yuan in revenue in 2014, Beijing's toll road system still lost eight billion yuan during the same period. That's a lot.

To put it in perspective, the recent Beijing Subway fare hike was spurred by an annual loss of RMB 5 billion in 2013, which was seen as unsustainable.

Road tolls are relatively much higher than subway fares or other public transportation options. For example, driving from Yanjiao, the Hebei province bedroom community 30 kilometers due east of Guo Mao, costs RMB 25 each way, with a small discount for users of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system.

Debt is a big issue for the road system. "By the end of 2014, Beijing invested 97.43 billion yuan on road construction," according to the report.

"But the majority of these roads were built using bank loans. The debt gap has grown over time, with the capital’s road debt valued at 58.9 billion yuan." That's also a lot.

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Photo: Wikipedia