Beijing opens 5 new subway lines amid gridlock woes

30 December 2010 - 10H24

A driver operates a train along one of five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs of Beijing -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

A cleaner gets to work on one of the platforms of a newly opened subway line in Beijing. China's capital on Thursday opened five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

AFP - China's capital Beijing on Thursday opened five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

The new routes add 108 kilometres (67 miles) to the capital's metro rail network, bringing the total to 336 kilometres, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The additions to the network -- which carries about five million passengers a day -- cost more than nine billion dollars, the report said.

Officials in Beijing are battling chronic gridlock and air pollution -- both of which rate as among the world's worst -- and the problems are getting worse as the city's increasingly wealthy citizens want to buy their own cars.

Last week, the city government announced new restrictions that will allow 240,000 new passenger cars registered in Beijing next year -- a third of the number that hit the roads in 2010.

China has also scrapped a tax cut on small passenger cars put in place as part of a massive stimulus package introduced to combat the global financial crisis. The purchase tax will be set at 10 percent from January 1.

Beijing and Mexico City have the worst traffic jams in the world, according to a survey released by IBM in June. The two cities scored 99 out of 100 in IBM's "commuter pain index".