Construction will start this year on a second Metro line in Suzhou City to connect the Jiangsu Province city to the high-speed railway linking Shanghai and Beijing.

A review was held over the weekend for the preliminary design for Metro Line 2, today's Oriental Morning Post reported.

According to the plan, the new line will start from Suzhou Station on the new Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, now under construction, and extend 26 kilometers through the city's five districts.

Nineteen kilometers of track will be underground with 22 stations. The new line will link with Suzhou's Metro Line 1, which is being built.

The second Metro line, expected to start operation in 2014, is part of Suzhou's traffic development program to build four Metro lines in the 1,000-year ancient city. The city also plans to build a fast rail line linking Suzhou to neighboring Wuxi City's Suofang Airport.

(Shanghai Daily October 26, 2009)