Beijing West railway station

As early as the 1950s, the concept of building the second passenger-railway station for Beijing and the underground diameter line had been formed. In the autumn of 1959, when the Beijing Railway Station, one of the “Ten Great Buildings” erected in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the National Day of the People's Republic of China, was just completed, the then Premier of the State Council, Zhou Enlai, during the process of reviewing the planning of Beijing's railway, affirmed the suggestion of a west passenger station in Beijing. In the general layout of the Beijing Railway Hub revised in September 1960, the idea at the time was to use Beijing West Railway Station and Beijing Railway Station as the main passenger terminal of the hub, and may connect the two major stations through the center of Beijing through four parallel underground tunnels. The site of the West Railway Station is directly opposite the Gongzhufen (Tomb of the Princess). The Beijing Municipal Government has correspondingly reserved land for the lotus pond that was still in the suburbs in the urban master plan. Therefore, for a long period of time thereafter, the lotus pond area has been a warehouse area dominated by simple bungalows. No permanent building has been constructed. However, due to the reduction in the scale of construction during the three-year difficult period, the planning has not made much progress. The subsequent start of the Cultural Revolution led to the suspension of the overall urban planning work in Beijing and the cancellation of the planning agency.

In January 1975, the first session of the 4th National People's Congress was convened. Deng Xiaoping was elected Vice Premier of the State Council and began to preside over the daily work of the Central Committee and the State Council; Wan Li was then appointed as the Minister of Railways, responsible for rectifying the chaotic railway transportation system at that time; In March, the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening Railway Work" was issued as a mobilization order for the comprehensive rectification of the railway, and it soon achieved results, and then proposed to build the Beijing West railway station again. At that time, the railway department and planning department were still very vague about the location and construction plan of Beijing West railway station. There was no detailed design before, and whether the planned underground diameter line was retained or not, and the technical plan was not finalized, resulting in the design of Beijing West railway station. It is difficult to decide whether to choose through or end. As agreed by the Ministry of Railways and the Beijing Municipal Government, it was decided to jointly establish a planning working group to be responsible for researching and selecting the site and construction plan of the West Railway Station. The Third Design Institute of the Ministry of Railways (now China Railway Design Group Co., Ltd.) and Beijing Architectural Design Institute (Now Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd.) were responsible for specific technical work.

After some investigation, comparison and discussion, the planning working group came up with the preliminary plan for Beijing West railway station in November 1975 and determined that the Beijing West station was a pass-through station. The station's site is located at the southwest corner of Lianhua Bridge. The road runs northwest–southeast, adopts a triangular square, and the station faces the center of the overpass. However, the political situation changed again soon after, affected by the "Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend" in 1976, and the site plan was shelved without approval.

Into the 1980s, with the gradual implementation of the reform and opening up policy, the pressure of China's railway transportation infrastructure has increased greatly, and transportation capacity is tight. By 1981, Beijing's railway passenger traffic had increased sharply, and 108 pairs of passenger trains were running every day in the central station, with an average daily passenger volume of 352,000; Beijing Station, as the largest railway passenger station in Beijing at that time, was already overloaded in operation, the annual passenger flow of Beijing Station in 1981 was 27.72 million, equivalent to 78,000 passengers per day. On 3 October 1981, the then Mayor of Beijing Jiao Ruoyu and Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee Duan Junyi reported on Beijing's railway transport situation to Vice Premier Wan Li and talked about the design and planning of the Beijing West Railway Station. This was the third such occurrence in the history of Beijing Municipal Government. It is proposed to construct the Beijing West station as soon as possible. In early December 1981, the Beijing Railway Bureau issued a letter to the Ministry of Railways and the Beijing Municipal Government to apply for the construction of the Beijing West Railway Station, and the preliminary design was officially launched. Subsequently, the planning team headed by former Minister of Railways Lu Zhengcao, together with personnel from the Ministry of Railways, Beijing Railway Administration, and the Third Design Institute of the Ministry of Railways, conducted on-site inspections to select the site for the station. The team members once climbed the Xiaotu Mountain on the north bank of the lotus pond to get an overview of the local area. Due to the dry season at that time and the excessive extraction of groundwater in the lotus pond area over the years, more than 20 hectares of ponds were dried up, overgrown with weeds, and deserted; the design team believed that this area did not occupy arable land and there would be less demolition, which was in line with the plan and saved money. It instructed the Third Design Institute of the Ministry of Railways on the spot to arrange the West Station at this location, and the design drawings needed to be submitted within three months. After the meeting, the group forwarded the site selection opinions to the Beijing Municipal Government for comments.

By the end of the 1980s, the problem of tight passenger capacity in the central Beijing railway hub became more and more serious. It was more difficult to cope with demand by relying solely on one main passenger station and two auxiliary passenger station (Beijing North and Beijing South) with insufficient equipment and capacity. Those three stations have not been expanded on a large scale for more than 30 years, and the passenger volume of the Beijing area has increased four-fold from 1970 to 1988. The construction of the Beijing West railway station has become an urgent need. In February 1989, the Beijing Municipal Government again formally proposed the construction of the Beijing West station. In March of the same year, the Beijing Municipal Government led the establishment of the "Beijing West Railway Station Preliminary Working Group", which convened a number of design institutes with certain strengths across the country to conduct an architectural design competition. At the same time, with the approval of the State Council, the pre-relocation works for the construction of the Beijing West station were launched during 1989. Involving the Xibianmen Goods Yard of Guang'anmen railway station and many factories and residential areas at Beijing West, the process had been large, difficult, and costly. At that time, the state's total investment in the project was 2.3 billion yuan, with the demolition alone costing more than one billion yuan.

In March 1990, the working group compiled and reported the "Beijing West Railway Station Plan and Tasks", and the Yangfangdian Road plan that reached a consensus as early as 1983 was officially "thawed". Since August 1990, the architectural plans of 7 design units have been selected. After several rounds of demonstration and selection of various design plans, the implementation design plan had been determined. On 30 September 1990, the Beijing Municipal Government, the Ministry of Railways, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications submitted to the State Planning Commission the document "On the basis of the revised plan for the Beijing West Railway Station", and proposed an investment of 2 billion yuan. Construction started in 1991 and opened in 1993. Used, the finishing work was completed in 1994. In March 1991, the State Council formally approved the design specification of the Beijing West station.

Beijingxi 北京西
Other names	Beijing West
Location	118 Lianhuachi Donglu, Fengtai District, Beijing China
Operated by	China Railway
Line(s)	Beijing–Guangzhou Railway Beijing–Kowloon Railway Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong High-Speed Railway Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway Beijing Underground Cross City Railway      Sub-Central line (Beijing Suburban Railway)
Platforms	18
Tracks	20
Other information
Station code	TMIS code: 21152 Telegram code: BXP Pinyin code: BJX
Classification	Top Class station
History
Opened	21 January 1996
Services
Preceding station China Railway High-speed Following station Terminus Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway Zhuozhou East towards Hong Kong West Kowloon Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway Beijing Daxing towards Daxing Airport Preceding station China Railway Following station Terminus Beijing–Guangzhou railway Houlücun towards Guangzhou Beijing–Kowloon railway Guang'anmen towards Hung Hom Beijing underground cross-city railway Beijing Terminus Preceding station MTR Following station Terminus Beijing–Kowloon through train Beijing–Guangzhou railway Zhengzhou towards Hung Hom Preceding station Beijing Suburban Railway Following station Liangxiang Terminus Sub-Central line Beijing towards Qiaozhuang East

Beijing West railway station is a terminal for both "traditional" and high-speed trains. It is the Beijing terminal for most trains leaving the city for destinations in western and southwestern China, including Xi'an, Chongqing, Chengdu, Lhasa and Urumqi. Major "traditional" rail lines beginning at this station include the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway (via Wuhan) and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway (via Nanchang and Shenzhen).

Beijing West is the terminal both for the Beijing-Kowloon Through Train and (since the opening of the Qingzang railway in 2006) for the Beijing-Lhasa trains.

Beijing West is the northern terminal of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway as of December 2012. High-speed trains leave the station for Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as various destinations on the connecting lines, such as Taiyuan and Xi'an. There are, however, plans to construct new major railway terminal (the new Fengtai railway station) in the southwestern part of Beijing, and to eventually make it the terminal for the high-speed trains on the Beijing-Guangzhou line.

The Beijing underground cross-city railway connects Beijing West with Beijing railway station.

Beijing West railway station 北京西站
Southbound/Eastbound platform
Operated by	Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corporation Limited
Line(s)	Line 7      Line 9
Platforms	4 (2 island platforms)
Tracks	4
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	28 December 2014 (line 7) 31 December 2011 (line 9)
Services
Preceding station   Beijing Subway   Following station Military Museum towards National Library Line 9 Liuliqiao Dong (E) towards Guogongzhuang Terminus Line 7 Wanzi towards Huazhuang

• This station is served by Line 7 and Line 9. Passengers are able to change between Line 7 and Line 9 using the cross-platform interchange method. The Subway concourse is on the Arrivals level, with all platforms a level further below. This station was the terminus of Line 9 until it was extended north to National Library on December 30, 2012.

• Beijing Bus stops:
  • Beijing West Station (北京西站): 9, 21, 40, 47, 50, 52, 54, 65, 67, 83, 89, 99, 205, 209, 212, 213, 301, 319, 320, 373, 374, 387, 414, 437, 616, 623, 661, 662, 663, 673, 694, 695, 741, 840, 843, 845, 901, 特2, 特6, 运通102
  • Beijing West Station South Square (北京西站南广场): 53, 72, 109, 122, 309, 349, 410, 616, 820, 890, 941, 982, 993,
• Beijing Airport Bus: Route 7

Bus route numbers in bold denotes terminus at the stop.

Regular rail services leave from Platforms 1–11; HSR leaves from Platforms 12–18. A dedicated exit is used for passengers arriving on Platform 18.

Beijing West railway station Platforms and Tracks

Beijing West railway station Platform 1

Beijing West railway station Platform 6

Beijing West railway station platform

All passengers will leave Beijing West from the Level 2 Departures Hall, except for passengers to Hong Kong, who must enter from a dedicated entrance with immigration and customs clearance facilities located by North Entrance 1. These passengers will clear customs and immigration at Beijing West and will not leave the train until it arrives at the Kowloon / Hung Hom terminus in Hong Kong. A VIP lounge is available for Business Class passengers travelling HSR.

Ticket counters and machines are available beside the main entrances.

The station has dual-island platforms with a cross platform interchange between lines 7 and 9. On one side, originating line 7 trains interchange with southbound line 9 trains towards Guogongzhuang, whilst on the other, terminating line 7 trains interchange with northbound line 9 trains towards National Library.