China: Beijing delays work on Olympic rail link(hurry-up construction inevitable)

Beijing has delayed the start of initial construction work for a Rmb5bn ($604m, €498m, £331m) rail link between its airport and the city centre that is one of the most high-profile projects planned as part of the Chinese capital's preparations to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

The company responsible for the 27km line had intended to begin work at its terminus in Beijing's Dongzhimen area on June 1, but could not because China's powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had yet to approve the project, municipal officials said.

The delay highlights the uncertainty that continues to cloud the airport link just three years before it is scheduled to open.

Project planners had decided to start construction in spite of the lack of any formal decision about what kind of rail system it will use, a situation industry executives said would be highly unusual in other countries.

Beijing was originally expected to choose in early 2004 between a conventional subway system, a light railway or magnetic levitation trains powered by linear motor.

More than a year later, international companies interested in supplying the rail systems are still waiting for news.

“We are expecting a tender to be held soon,” said one foreign executive. “If not, there will not be enough time to complete the line [before the Olympics].”

However, a city official said Beijing Dongzhimen Airport Express Rail, the company set up by the city in July 2001 to build and operate the line, planned to use wheeled subway trains with a linear propulsion system similar to that adopted by the southern city of Guangzhou.

Selection of a “maglev” system, which would use Japanese technology, had already been widely seen as highly unlikely because of diplomatic tensions between Tokyo and Beijing. The confusion surrounding the airport line, which has been described by a Chinese newspaper as a “mystery to the public”, reflects a broad lack of transparency in Beijing infrastructure development.

Beijing Dongzhimen Airport Express Rail, the NDRC and Beijing's transport and city planning departments declined to comment on construction plans for the line or give details of how it would be owned or operated.

“It is not convenient to discuss the technology [to be used] because it has not yet been approved by the NDRC,” said one municipal official. “Plans for the commercialisation of the project and its lifespan also require NDRC approval.”

In spite of the delays, one industry executive said the line could be built in time. “China is very dynamic,” he said. “Sometimes you think they won't do it in time . . . but they build very quickly.”

Trains are scheduled to begin trials on July 1 2008, five weeks before the games, an event that Beijing sees as an opportunity to win a new image as a modern and cosmopolitan metropolis. Officials said that following the start of initial construction at Dongzhimen the site of a planned new Beijing city transport hub work along the airport line route was scheduled to start in September.

In spite of the delays, one industry executive said the line could be built in time. "China is very dynamic," he said. "Sometimes you think they won't do it in time . . . but they build very quickly."

Of course, it can be built quickly, but the question is, "Will it work once completed?"

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