SELF-DRIVING trains for the subway line connecting downtown Beijing with its new international airport started a trial run Saturday, according to local authorities.

Stretching 41.4 kilometers, the new line supports an autopilot system and can run at a speed of 160 km per hour, with as many as 448 passengers, according to Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office.

It runs through Daxing and Fentai, two districts in the southern part of Beijing, and will take passengers only 19 minutes to travel from the Caoqiao station in Beijing’s south third ring road to the new airport after it starts operation by the end of September.

The line is part of an integrated transport network that will combine subways, expressways, intercity rail and high-speed rail with the airport at the center.

Beijing Daxing International Airport, located 46 kilometers south of downtown Beijing, is designed to take pressure off overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeastern suburbs. It sits at the junction of Beijing’s Daxing District and Langfang, a city in neighboring Hebei Province.

(Xinhua)