No more long slogs between subway lines, says govt

The time taken to transfer between two subway lines in the capital should take no more than 5 minutes in future, according to Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning (CUP).

The commission has recently drafted new local standards for future Beijing rail transit projects and they will be released soon to solicit public opinions, the Beijing Daily reported yesterday.

One of the shortcomings of Beijing's subways has been transfer times, as commuters complain it takes more time to transfer than to take a bus, especially at Xizhimen and Dongzhimen subway stations, two of the busiest in the city.

"It's troublesome to change lines, and people need to walk for 7 to 8 minutes in the narrow, crowded corridors," said a female commuter, surnamed Zhao, yesterday at Dongzhimen station.

Some even said the inconvenience has made them reluctant to use the subway.

"We'd like to commute in a greener way, but it's just so inconvenient and frustrating to travel sometimes," said another commuter, surnamed Xu, at Guomao station.

Shao Chunfu, professor of urban transportation research at Beijing Jiaotong University also thinks only convenient traveling experiences could "make the capital a truly low-carbon city."

"Adopting new standards for subway line construction proves the lack of thought over the designs of the old ones. It takes people about 10 minutes to transfer at stations from Line 1 to Line 2, or when going from Line 2 to Line 13 at Xizhimen," said Shao.

"It's good to make corrections when building new lines, but maybe they also should come up with some plans to fix the old transfer stations," noted Shao.

Du Zhe, the publicity official of CUP refused to comment yesterday. Later, no one at the commission would answer the phone.