Line 11, "the Most Beautiful Subway Line", Comes into Service——Qingdao Ushers in a New Era for Three-Line Transfer

While the train runs underground and passes through mountains, passengers enjoy the sight of mountains and seas throughout the journey.

On April 23, Subway Line 11, the first elevated line of Qingdao undertaken by UCD on EPC basis, was opened to traffic across the board. With overhead laying featuring the line, Line 11 is the third metro line opened in Qingdao that stretches as long as 58.35 kilometers. With a panoramic view of “mountains, seas, springs and woods” all the way through, the line is rated as the “Most Beautiful Subway Line”. To date, the mileage of rail traffic has reached a total of more than 100 kilometers in Qingdao, enabling the city to enter into an era of three-line transfer.

Line 11 is a rail transit express line connecting the main urban area of Qingdao and the city’s Blue Silicon Valley. The opening of the line will bring about the seamless connection between the main urban area of Qingdao and the public transport of Jimo. Meanwhile, the line also links such tourist areas as Laoshan Scenic Spot, Haiquan Bay Hot-Spring Resort, and the rural leisure and entertainment area at Beizhai, etc., making it easier and faster for people to start their travels. In addition, Line 11 is highlighted by the characteristics of “fast, high, new and beautiful”.

“Fast”. With the maximum speed designed to be 120 kilometers per hour, Line 11 is currently one of the fastest metro lines in China and can finish the full distance in less than one hour.

“High”. Featured by elevated line sections, Line 11 has 22 stations, 18 of which are elevated stations, with the highest station reaching the height of 20 meters and the lowest being 4 meters or so.

“New”. Line 11 advocates the construction concept of green and environmental protection. Through perfect combination of prefabricated U-shape girders and contact rails of direct current 1500V, and by use of such new technologies and approaches as soleplate-type sound absorbers and noise reduction devices, the adverse effects caused by the construction and post-stage operation on nearby residents were minimized.

“Beautiful”. Shaped in sea waves, 6 key stations present a comfortable and unfolding appearance, whereas other 12 standard stations are made in the shape of “ships” saving up strength for oceangoing voyages. The concept of “each station presenting its unique scenery” fully embodies the marine culture of Qingdao. At the same time, beautiful landscapes and rich tourism resources along the subway line, with the nearest distance between the line and the sea being less than 100 meters, enable passengers to enjoy the sight of both human and natural landscapes. Sitting comfortably in the train and enjoying a broad view outside, passengers are able to traverse underground space and mountain tunnels, enjoy the change of time and space, and experience “low-altitude flying” brought about by elevated bridges to reach a genuine and perfect combination of man and nature and to experience different landscapes of “mountains, seas, springs and woods”. Hence, Line 11 has been rated as the “Most Beautiful Subway Line”.

The opening of Line 11 to traffic is inseparable to the support and help given by UCD leaders, inseparable to the arduous efforts contributed by the project personnel and inseparable to the assistance offered to the fullest extent by all UCD members. We have more work to do and still a long way to go. In the future, we shall stick to UCD’s design philosophy of “Professionalism, Creation, Efficiency and Contribution”, keep improving and do all we can to accomplish the subsequent design tasks perfectly. We shall, with the passionate feelings of UCD people, construct the beautiful Metro Dream jointly with Qingdao！