China’s railway station, Asia’s largest railway passenger hub, commenced operations in Fengtai District, southwestern Beijing, on Monday after nearly four years of reconstruction.
The station has a gross floor area of nearly 400,000 square meters, 1.2 times the size of Beijing’s South Railway Station and more than twice the size of the Forbidden City.
A terminal for multiple arterial train lines in China, the station serves both high-speed and conventional trains. It is the country’s first railway station featuring a double-deck structure available for both high-speed and regular trains.
The trains will travel to and from Beijing and cities like Guangzhou, in Guangdong Province and Kowloon in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. A total of 120 trains were put into service in the preliminary stage of its operation.
The station can accommodate a maximum of 14,000 people waiting for trains per hour and has 32 rail tracks and 32 platforms. There are four floors on the ground and three floors underground, with high-speed rail running on the top, conventional speed railways on the ground and subways underground. The double-deck structure saves urban land resources. However, the waiting hall is sandwiched between two parking lots, blocking the natural light.
A central light courtyard in the middle of the roof of the station was designed to solve the problem, and the solution will help save 950,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and more than 900 tonnes of carbon emission every year.
Beijing Fengtai Railway Station was first built in 1895, making it the oldest of its kind in the Chinese capital. It used to be an important transportation hub in northern China, providing both passenger and freight services. After 115 years of operation, it closed in 2010 amid the rapid development of the city and railway. Reconstruction and expansion commenced in September 2018. – CGTN
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