At midnight on February 10, the Line 13 re-routing and track connection project into the Qinghe Comprehensive Transportation Hub officially started. In the future, a new Qinghe Station will be added between the existing Shangdi Station and Xierqi Station on Line 13, co-located with the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway, forming the Qinghe Station Comprehensive Transportation Hub. The construction of Qinghe Station on Line 13 is divided into two phases. The first phase involves coordinating with the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway re-routing, completing the installation and commissioning of equipment and facilities in the section, and realizing non-stop passage of Line 13 trains through Qinghe Station. The second phase will put the station into use after the installation and commissioning of communication, signaling, power supply, platform screen doors, ticket vending and checking equipment, etc., within Qinghe Station on Line 13 are completed.

Line 13 to make a small turn into Qinghe Station

After the last train on February 9 finished operation, stations on the western section of Line 13 from Longze to Xizhimen closed their entrances and transfer passage gates, and temporary signs were installed to remind passengers that the western section of Line 13 would soon begin a 7-day suspension for the track connection project.

At midnight, construction units for subgrade, track, four-electric systems, and station buildings arrived at designated locations, assembled, and conducted pre-construction safety education and on-site technical briefings. At 12:30 a.m., 500 construction workers quickly and orderly entered the construction site according to the predetermined route, sawing rails, removing fasteners, raking ballast, dismantling cables, removing steel rails and sleepers, and removing track circuit equipment... From 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., the rail sawing work for the track connection of the north and south sections and the track part of the new section was completed within one hour.

Six excavators, four loaders, and four cranes also joined in. According to the plan, they were to complete the demolition of existing line equipment at the north and south ends of the new section within 7 hours and hand over to the subgrade construction unit to start earthwork excavation. Within 24 hours, the track connection at the north and south ends of the connection section was completed.

Liang Haiying, deputy director of the System Equipment Department of the Second Project Management Center of Beijing Rail Transit Construction Management Co., Ltd., introduced that track connection refers to the reconstruction project where the track line position changes, transferring the original track line to a new position. In the future, transfer between the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway and Subway Line 13 will be realized at Qinghe Station. Passengers can take the subway without leaving the station after getting off the train, achieving seamless connection and great convenience. But to achieve this goal, the existing Subway Line 13 track must be connected into Qinghe Station.

The distance between Shangdi Station and Xierqi Station on Line 13 is 2,531 meters, and Qinghe Station is located right in the middle of the two stations. The existing Line 13 is located on the west side of Qinghe Station. This time, under the condition of suspension, the 1.3-kilometer line of the western section of the existing Subway Line 13 will be cut and re-routed, and connected into the Qinghe Comprehensive Transportation Hub. "It's like making a small turn to the east from the old line," Liang Haiying explained vividly.

Before Qinghe Station opens, Line 13 trains will pass without stopping

A responsible person from the Municipal Transport Commission introduced that Qinghe Station is located in Qinghe Town, Haidian District, at the site of the original Qinghe Station of the Beijing-Baotou Railway. Previously, China Railway Corporation and the Beijing Municipal People's Government jointly approved and clarified the layout plan for the Line 13 station at Qinghe Station to be co-located with the national railway yard, adding a new Qinghe Station between the existing Shangdi Station and Xierqi Station on Line 13, co-located with the Qinghe Station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway.

In the future, Line 13, the southern extension of the Changping Line, the branch line of Line 19, and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway will form the Qinghe Comprehensive Transportation Hub together with surrounding transportation facilities.

The Line 13 re-routing project will demolish the elevated bridge of the existing line and continue westward, using this space as the station building structure of the high-speed railway Qinghe Station, while also carrying out equipment management rooms, decoration, and necessary reserved embedments within the Line 13 station.

The total length of this track connection project is 1.3 kilometers. Specifically, the project will start track connection 578 meters north of Shangdi Station on Line 13, build 1,300 meters of new line, and then reconnect to the existing Line 13 on the north side of Qinghe Station, which is 653 meters from Xierqi Station. The project will cause a 7-day suspension of operation on the western section of Line 13 from Xizhimen Station to Longze Station, concentrating on earthwork excavation of the high subgrade section, wall chiseling, subgrade filling, track connection, and equipment system installation and commissioning.

The construction of Qinghe Station on Line 13 is divided into two phases. The first phase involves coordinating with the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway re-routing, completing the installation and commissioning of equipment and facilities in the section, and realizing non-stop passage of Line 13 trains through Qinghe Station. The second phase will put the station into use after the installation and commissioning of communication, signaling, power supply, platform screen doors, ticket vending and checking equipment, etc., within Qinghe Station on Line 13 are completed.

Multiple subway lines to shorten operating intervals

For this construction, the implementation plan of "maintaining operation on the eastern section of Subway Line 13 (Dongzhimen Station to Huilongguan Station) and suspending operation on the western section (Xizhimen Station to Longze Station) for 7 days" is adopted.

During the construction period, the subway operation plan will be optimized. From February 10 to February 16, the minimum train interval on Line 13 from Huilongguan Station to Dongzhimen Station will be 2 minutes and 50 seconds; Line 8 will extend morning peak operation by 1 hour, and the midday off-peak interval will be reduced from 6 minutes to 5 minutes, increasing capacity by 20%; the peak interval on the Changping Line will be reduced from 4 minutes to 3 minutes and 40 seconds, increasing capacity by 9%, and the midday off-peak interval will be reduced from 10 minutes to 8 minutes, increasing capacity by 25%. At the same time, based on passenger flow changes on Line 13, Changping Line, Line 8, Line 5, Line 10, Line 2, Line 15, etc., additional temporary trains will be added as appropriate.

At the same time, bus capacity support will be increased. During the suspension of the western section of Subway Line 13, 106 bus routes connecting to affected stations on the western section of Line 13 and for remote diversion will respectively adopt measures such as increasing capacity, opening temporary shuttle lines, and adjusting service stops of diversified routes to meet the travel needs of residents along the lines.