The east extension of Beijing Subway Line 8 and the north extension of the Line 19 Branch to the North Campus of the Palace Museum will be "accelerated".

Recently, the "Development Plan for the Modern Comprehensive Transportation System of Beijing during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period" was released. In the aspect of optimizing the existing rail transit network, it specifically puts forward deepening the research on schemes such as the east extension of Rail Transit Line 8 to the new Yizhuang campus of Beijing Children's Hospital, and the north extension of the branch line of Line 19 to the North Palace of the Palace Museum.

These two lines are concerned by many residents. The special mention in this municipal-level plan means that the extension projects of the two rail transit lines are expected to "speed up".

In fact, there have been continuous news about these two lines before, but most of the news was released at the district level, and this is the first time that they have been clearly put forward in a municipal-level plan.

Among them, regarding the East Extension of Line 8, we have released a push notification to everyone as early as November 2023. At that time, the route scheme was already under research, which extends eastward from Yinghai Station at the southern end of Line 8 to the Hexi Area in Yizhuang.

In January last year, the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission released the news that the construction project of the new campus of Beijing Children's Hospital was approved. A reserved underground interface is set on the east side of the newly planned and designed campus, which will connect with the planned Rail Transit Line 8, Line S6 and the commercial complex on the east side, which further confirmed the news of the east extension of Line 8.

After that, there was no new update about the east extension of Line 8. The newly released "Plan" undoubtedly gives a reassurance to the citizens who care about this line.

There is even less publicly disclosed information about the North Extension of the Branch Line of Line 19 to the North Palace of the Palace Museum. The latest previous news was a procurement announcement released on the Beijing Government Procurement Network in September 2024, which launched the research on the north extension scheme of the branch line of Line 19.

The research includes comparison of route directions (comparison of multiple route plans in the Software Park and Yongfeng Cluster), demonstration of transfer schemes with Line 13 / Line 16 / Northern Connecting Line, and special research on the station location and entrance and exit layout of the North Palace of the Palace Museum station.

These two lines were not included in the third-phase construction plan of Beijing's rail transit before, so they are not lines to be constructed in the near future.

However, being included in the "Development Plan for the Modern Comprehensive Transportation System of Beijing during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period" this time indicates that their pre-research work will be "speeded up".

However, it should be noted that "in-depth research" does not equal "starting construction". For rail transit lines, "in-depth research" usually belongs to the reserve projects in the pre-demonstration stage. Only after the demonstration proves feasible can the projects enter the construction processes such as project approval, feasibility study, and commencement.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jing Fang Zi", author: Jing Fang Zi, published with authorization from 36Kr.