Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 27 lines including 22 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 490 stations. The rail network extends 836 km (519 mi) across 12 urban and suburban districts of Beijing and into one district of Langfang in neighboring Hebei province. With 3.8484 billion trips delivered in 2018, an average of 10.544 million trips per day, the Beijing Subway is the world's busiest metro system. Single-day ridership set a record of 13.7538 million on July 12, 2019. Being 836 kilometres (519 mi) in system length, the Beijing Subway is the longest metro system by route length, surpassing the Shanghai Metro in December 2023.
Beijing Subway | |||||||
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Logo of Beijing Subway | |||||||
A line 13 train leaving Huoying station | |||||||
Overview | |||||||
Native name | |||||||
Chinese name | |||||||
Simplified Chinese | 北京地铁 | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 北京地鐵 | ||||||
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Owner | Beijing Municipal Government | ||||||
Locale | Beijing & Langfang, Hebei | ||||||
Transit type | Rapid transit | ||||||
Number of lines | 27 | ||||||
Number of stations | 490 | ||||||
Daily ridership | 10.544 million (2018 daily avg.) 13.7538 million (12 July 2019 record) | ||||||
Annual ridership | 3.8484 billion (2018) | ||||||
Website | bjsubway.com mtr.bj.cn bjmoa.cn | ||||||
Operation | |||||||
Began operation | 15 January 1971 | ||||||
Operator(s) |
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Character | Underground, at grade and elevated | ||||||
Number of vehicles | 6,173 Revenue Railcars (2019) | ||||||
Technical | |||||||
System length | 836 km (519 mi) | ||||||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||||||
Electrification |
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The Beijing Subway opened in 1971 and is the oldest metro system in mainland China and on the mainland of East Asia. Before the system began its rapid expansion in 2002, the subway had only two lines. The existing network still cannot adequately meet the city's mass transit needs. Beijing Subway's extensive expansion plans call for 998.5 km (620.4 mi) of lines serving a projected 18.5 million trips every day when Phase 2 Construction Plan finished (around 2025). The most recent expansion came into effect on December 30, 2023, with the openings of extensions to Line 11, Line 16, and Line 17.