Elevated monorail to be built in Pingshan this year
Writer: | Editor: Vince Xie | From: | Updated: 2017-01-19
An electric monorail system will be built in Pingshan District this year.
CONSTRUCTION of a long-expected electric monorail will be initiated this year in Pingshan District, connecting the Pingshan High-speed Railway Station to Nan’ao in Dapeng New Area.
The news was announced at a Pingshan-focused panel discussion of the city’s third session of the sixth Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress that ended Tuesday.
With the electric monorail system and other plans for Metro lines and roads, the public transport system in this newly inaugurated district is expected to be much more convenient.
The first-phase construction of a rail section will be started at the Pingshan High-speed Railway Station and end at Biyadi Road, a road named after the local carmaker BYD, with a total length of 5.4 kilometers.
Though it hasn’t been officially confirmed, there might be four lines for the monorail when it is completed. The four lines are believed to cover most of the key areas and places in Pingshan.
The monorail, developed by BYD, will cover most scenic spots in Dapeng New Area. Dubbed “SkyRail,” the monorail system requires only a sixth of the capital expenditure of a subway system and is cheaper to maintain, the company said, adding that SkyRail will have a delivery capacity of 10,000 to 30,000 passengers one way per hour.
Meanwhile, construction of Metro Lines 14 and 16 has been included in the city’s rail construction plan and will also start this year. Residents of Pingshan will be able to get to the city center via subway in four years’ time.
An express train connecting Pingshan and Futian districts was opened at the beginning of this year. Despite disputes regarding the train fare and the frequency of the trains, the express line saves time for residents traveling between the two districts.
Increasingly convenient transportation will be essential for the area’s future development, as more city-level projects including industrial parks, universities, and hospitals are settling in Pingshan in the next few years.