The Beijing Subway Co yesterday started rehabilitation on its stations that will allow passengers to use their mobile phones and shorten intervals between trains.

The building of barrier-free passages and the installation of Braille signage and new handrails at subway stations is expected to make using the subway more convenient for handicapped people, the company said.

Renovation on Lines 1 and 2, which were built in the 1960s, is in full swing, and is expected to be completed by April. When the work is finished, all of Beijing's subway lines will be covered by wireless telecommunications networks.

New wheelchair-accessible trains will be put into circulation, the company said in its work progress report.

The company said 120 new trains will be added to the Line 1, Beijing's east-west trunk line, to cut the intervals to two and a half minutes by the end of June next year. Another 144 new trains will be added to the Line 2, an underground loop line mirroring the second ring road in downtown Beijing.

New stainless steel cars have started running on a trial basis on an unused section of the city's rail route. The Beijing municipal government has spent nearly 4 billion yuan (US$526 million) to upgrade the two metro lines before next summer's Olympics.

Currently, Beijing has four rail lines totaling 114 km. They carry 2.1 million passengers a day. The city will have nine lines totaling 200 km by next year, and 19 lines totaling 561.5 km by 2020. Beijing's Line 5, which runs through the heart of the city from north to south, opened to traffic last week.

(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2007)