Beijing Fengtai Station, the largest railway hub in Asia, opened for operation, witnessing the 100-year change of Beijing Railway Station

Reporter | Tang Jun

On June 20, the renovated and expanded Beijing Fengtai Station opened. According to the China Railway Group, this is currently the largest railway station in Asia, and of course it has become the largest railway station in Beijing.

In recent years, on the basis of the existing Beijing Railway Station, Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing South Railway Station and other important large-scale stations, Beijing Railway has added many new railway stations. With the opening of Beijing-Xiong Intercity, Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway, and Beijing-Harbin High-speed Railway, a number of high-speed railway stations such as Beijing Qinghe Station, Beijing Chaoyang Station, Daxing Airport Station, and Badaling Great Wall Station have been put into use.

After the opening of Beijing Fengtai Station, it will relieve the pressure on existing stations such as Beijing Railway Station and Beijing West Railway Station, and at the same time greatly change the existing station layout of Beijing Railway.

Beijing adds another extra-large station

Fengtai Railway Station was built in 1895 and served many lines such as the Old Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway. With the rapid development of Beijing’s urban construction and railway, the related business undertaken by Fengtai Station has been handed over to Beijing West Station, Fengtai West Station and other stations one after another.

In September 2018, Fengtai Station implemented the reconstruction and expansion project. After 4 years of reconstruction and expansion, the century-old Beijing Fengtai Station has reopened with a new look. The station building has a construction area of ​​about 400,000 square meters, and can accommodate up to 14,000 people per hour at the same time. There are 32 arrival and departure lines and 32 passenger platform platforms.

Beijing Fengtai Station is the first super-large station in China that adopts the overlapping design of high-speed rail and ordinary rail double-decker parking lot.

Beijing Fengtai Station, photo courtesy of China National Railway Group

Beijing Fengtai Station, photo courtesy of China National Railway Group

At present, the three stations with the largest passenger flow in Beijing are Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing South Railway Station and Beijing Railway Station, of which Beijing Railway Station and Beijing South Railway Station have a long history.

Beijing Railway Station can be traced back to Zhengyangmen East Railway Station, which was opened to traffic in 1903, and changed its name several times during this period. In 1959, as the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the capital’s top ten buildings, the newly built Beijing Railway Station was put into use. Beijing Railway Station has been in operation for 63 years. After several major repairs and expansions, it is still one of the most important railway stations in Beijing.

Beijing South Railway Station can be traced back to Majiapu Station, which was built in 1897. In 2006, Beijing South Railway Station was closed for renovation, and in 2008, it was reopened with the opening of the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway.

Beijing West Railway Station was completed and put into use in early 1996. It was once the largest railway station in Asia, and it has also undergone reconstruction and expansion.

In January 2021, the Beijing-Harbin high-speed rail line will be fully operational, and Beijing Chaoyang Station will be opened simultaneously, becoming the fourth largest railway station in Beijing at that time and the starting point of the Beijing-Harbin high-speed rail.

Qinghe Railway Station and Beijing North Railway Station are both important stations on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the first railway designed and built by the Chinese. At the end of 2019, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway was opened, and the rebuilt Qinghe Station and Beijing North Station were put into operation again. The new Badaling Great Wall Station on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed rail line has become the deepest underground high-speed rail station in the world.

Beijing Chaoyang Station, Photo: Tang Jun

Qinghe Station, image source: Visual China

Major railway stations divide labor and connect the whole country

The above-mentioned stations are the most important railway stations in Beijing, which undertake the task of train transportation to and from Beijing from all over the country. Most of the railway passenger flow in Beijing is also concentrated at these stations.

In terms of platform scale, the largest is Beijing Fengtai Station, which has 17 stations and 32 lines, followed by Beijing South Station with 13 stations and 24 lines, Beijing West Station with 10 stations and 20 lines, Beijing Station with 8 stations and 16 lines, and Beijing Chaoyang Station. The station is 7 stations and 15 lines, Beijing North Station is 6 stations and 11 lines, and Qinghe Station is 4 stations and 8 lines.

Graphics: Interface News Tang Jun

In terms of geographical distribution, large railway stations are mainly located in the south of Chang’an Avenue . Beijing Railway Station is located within the Second Ring Road, Beijing South Railway Station, Beijing West Railway Station, and Beijing North Railway Station are located between the Second and Third Ring Roads, Beijing Fengtai Station is located between the West Third Ring Road and West Fourth Ring Road, and Beijing Chaoyang Station is located between the East Fourth Ring Road and the East Fourth Ring Road. Between the Fifth Ring Road, Qinghe stands outside the North Fifth Ring Road.

From the perspective of division of labor, Beijing South Railway Station basically runs high-speed trains, and the main lines introduced are Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and Beijing-Tianjin intercity, going to Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jinan, Hefei, Fuzhou and other places. Beijing West Railway Station operates both high-speed trains and regular-speed trains to North China, Central China, South China, Southwest China and Northwest China. Beijing Railway Station mainly operates regular-speed trains, and international trains to Northeast China, North China, East China, and Northwest China also depart from Beijing Railway Station.

Beijing Chaoyang Station, as the starting point of the Beijing-Harbin high-speed railway, mainly runs high-speed trains to the three northeastern provinces. Qinghe Railway Station and Beijing North Railway Station mainly run trains via Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Zhang-Da, and Zhang-Hu high-speed railways to Zhangjiakou, Datong, Hohhot, Baotou and other places. Beijing Daxing Station and Daxing Airport Station are mainly responsible for trains to and from Beijing and Xiongan.

From June 20, some trains from Beijing West Railway Station and Beijing Railway Station will be transferred to Beijing Fengtai Railway Station.

Jiemian News learned from the China National Railway Group that Beijing Fengtai Station mainly handles EMU trains in the direction of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway to the Shitai high-speed railway, as well as the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, the Jingyuan Railway and some Beijing hubs. Beijing Fengtai Station has initially arranged 120 passenger trains, including 46 high-speed trains and 74 ordinary speed trains.

12306 shows that high-speed trains to Taiyuan, Yuncheng, Nanchang, Jinggangshan, Xiamen, Longyan and other places will depart from Beijing Fengtai Station, and some trains passing through Baoding and Shijiazhuang will also be transferred to Beijing Fengtai Station. Beijing Fengtai Station will also operate regular-speed trains from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Baotou, Xiamen, Hancheng, Baoji and other places, passing through many provinces in a large span.

With the opening of Beijing Fengtai Railway Station, line adjustments have also been made between Beijing Railway Station, Beijing West Railway Station, and Beijing East Railway Station. From June 20th, the 12 trains of the Beijing-Guangzhou Line from the original Beijing-Guangzhou Line will be adjusted to the Beijing West Railway Station, and the 5 regular-speed trains of the original Beijing East Railway Station will be adjusted to the Beijing Railway Station.

Beijing East Railway Station is located in Baiziwan. According to the Beijing Daily, it is the smallest railway station in Beijing and currently runs trains on the Sub-Central Line of Suburban Railway.

As the railway station with the largest platform, Beijing Fengtai Station will gradually increase the number of trains in the future, and the passenger flow will also gradually increase. Beijing Fengtai Railway Station will jointly build a railway hub in Beijing with important stations such as Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing South Railway Station, Beijing Railway Station, Beijing Chaoyang Railway Station, Qinghe Railway Station, and Beijing North Railway Station.

In addition, Tongzhou, Changping, Shunyi, Huairou, Miyun, Fangshan, Mentougou, Yanqing and other districts also have their own railway stations, which undertake the transportation tasks of part of the main line trains passing through the area, and also run suburban trains in Beijing.