Airport Express, Beijing Subway

Airport Express, Beijing Subway

The Airport Express line of the Beijing Subway (simplified Chinese: 北京机场轨道交通线; traditional Chinese: 北京機場軌道交通線; pinyin: Běijīng Jīchǎng Guǐdào Jiāotōng xiàn) also known as ABC (Airport Beijing City)(北京快轨 Běijīng kuàiguǐ) is an elevated Metro line that connects the Beijing Capital International Airport (Beijing Capital Airport or Beijing Airport) with Beijing's urban center. The line is 28.1 kilometres (17.5 mi) in length and has only four stops: Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao in the city, and Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 of the Beijing Airport. The Airport Express line is designed to carry up to 4,500 passengers per hour at peak times and 40,000 passengers a day, with trains running for 15 hours a day with a minimum separation of four minutes between trains. The line entered into operation on July 19, 2008. On subway maps, the Airport Line's color is magnolia.

As currently configured, the Airport Express line has insufficient capacity to cope with the rapidly growing numbers of passengers using the airport. Beijing Capital airport ranks second globally for the number of passengers served with 81.6 million passengers in 2012 and by 2015 the airport's passengers are forecast to exceed 90 million. In April 2012 daily ridership on the Airport Express line was reported as 36,800. From these statistics, the Airport Express line is currently serving up to 18 percent of the average daily number of airport passengers but this percentage is likely to decline as ridership on the line during peak hours is already close to the design maximum.

In the short term there is little scope to increase the Airport Express line's capacity. The 4-car train sets used on the line have significantly lower capacity than those on other Beijing subway lines which operate 6-car train sets while the new Line 6 operates 8-car sets Also, the routing of the Airport Express requires trains from Terminal 3 to first travel to Terminal 2 before returning to the city. If trains were able to return directly from Terminal 3 to the city the capacity on the route could be increased. The opening of new subway lines on December 30, 2012, particularly the major extension of Line 10 which has a transfer station with the Airport Express line at Sanyuanqiao, is likely to significantly increase passenger volumes on the Airport Express line.