A 17 April 2020 document from China’s National Reform and Development Commission focusing on promoting the development of airport rail hubs hints at an encouraging development, with the list of 11 projects in the circular starting off with a new rail link between Beijing Capital (PEK) and Daxing (PKX) airports. This particular rail link will be built starting this year.
At present, Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK; 北京首都国际机场), in northeastern Beijing, is 78 km (48½ miles) away by motorway from the new Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX; 北京大兴国际机场) in the extreme south, necessitating a 1 hour 9 minute drive. Drivers will need to deal with three different motorways, some of these passing areas with a high likelihood of traffic queues. The new rail link picks up from the current part of the Intercity Railway Connector Line, which terminates at Langfang (廊坊) in the nearby province of Hebei (河北). From Langfang, the line, which in this bit is already being built, connects from Langfang East (Langfang Dong; 廊坊东), Air Hub New Estate (Konggang Xinqu; 空港新区), and New Air Hub City (Xinhangcheng; 新航城) stations to Daxing Airport (Daxing Jichang; 大兴机场) station, where it intersects with the Beijing-Xiong’an Intercity Railway.
The new rail link to Capital Airport will head northeast, then north, making a stop at Hub Tongzhou, home to Beijing’s new city hall offices, as well as offering a connection to Beijing Subway Line 7 and the Batong Line at Huazhuang (花庄) interchange. Of all the terminals at Beijing Capital Airport, conditions for linking to this new line are best at Terminal 3, although neither length, speed, nor detailed termini were given in the recently-released government document, as cited by the Beijing Daily (ZH simp). The same document pointed to the planned presence of another new line — the Tianjin-Daxing Airport Railway (津兴铁路). Previously known as the more wordy Tianjin-Beijing Daxing International Connector, the new railway shares tracks out from Tianjin West (Tianjin Xi; 天津西) railway station, only becoming its own line at Shengfang (胜芳) railway station, heading north via Gu’an to Daxing Airport. Previous details point to this line being a mostly 250 km/h (157 mph) line over around 63 km (approx 39 miles). This line, too, is expected to have works begin this year.
Also mentioned in the government circular were rail connections to/from other international airports including Shanghai Hongqiao and Pudong airports, Tianjin Binhai airport, Shenzhen Bao’an airport (which already got a new line last year), as well as Changsha Huanghua, Kunming Changshui, Lanzhou Zhongchuan, and Xi’an Xianyang airports, as well as the new Xiamen Xiang’an airport. Of these, most will be either intercity lines or higher-speed main line nationwide rail routes (or outright High Speed); a few will be metro or express metro lines. The vast majority of these are expected to see works begin this year. In a few years’ time, the air-to-rail model, already very much the norm in Europe, should also be the new norm in China.