1. Summary of Activities of TWG

The Transport Working Group (TWG) has worked for three and a half years since its establishment in March 1998. In the framework of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) and with the support of German Corporation for Technical Co-operation (GTZ), TWG has conducted following activities on two aspects in accordance with the specific situation of China: urban transport and environment and inter-urban transport and environment.

1.1 Nine TWG working group meetings

Nine TWG plenary meetings have been successfully held in Beijing, Chongqing municipalities of China and Wuppertal of Germany, Los Angeles of America etc., respectively. The meetings resulted in frank discussion on the work plans and proposals for CCICED etc.

1.2 Three workshops

a A workshop on Urban Transport and Environment was held in Beijing in March 1993 and participated by the Urban Construction Department of the Ministry of Construction (MOC), Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Dalian, Shenzhen and Guiyang municipalities, H.K. SAR. Both domestic representatives and four international experts delivered speeches on the topics concerned.

b A workshop on Inter-urban Transport and Environment was held in Chongqing in May 2000. Representatives from the Ministry of Communications, Railway, Civil Aviation and Petrochemical Corporation, Transport Bureau of Chongqing municipality, Jiangshu Province and Liaoning Province participated. Many valuable presentations covered various transport modes and three international experts also presented reports on the subject as well.

c A workshop on Integrated Transportation and Environmental Protection was held in Beijing in April 2001 and speeches were made on related issues by Comprehensive Transport Institute of State Development and Planning Commission of China (SDPC), Guangdong, Hubei provinces, Xinjiang Autonomous, Tsinghua University and six international experts.

1.3 Two domestic field visits

a. In November 1999 both domestic and international experts of TWG went to Beijing and Dalian municipalities. They did not only visited urban transport and environment situations in each city, but also exchanged ideas with local governors.

b. In May 2000, group members went to Kunming, Shenzhen, Qingdao municipalities focusing on topics of urban transport and environment and exchanging ideas with relevant local governors.

1.4 Three study tours

a. In June 1999 group members carried out a study-tour to eleven cities of four European countries on the topic of urban transport and environment.

b. In June 2000 relevant officers from four selected pilot cities Dalian, Shenzhen, Kunming and Qingdao visited five cities of three European countries in order to learn from these European environmental and transport situations and their experiences.

c. In May 2001 group members conducted a study-tour to the U.S.A on the topic of integrated transport and environmental protection.

2. Following Progress was made during the three and half years:

2.1 Four proposals on transport and environment in China

a. Proposal on Improving Urban Transport and Environmental Issues was submitted in November 1999. It was jointly issued and distributed to local environmental protection bureaus and construction committees of 35 municipalities and capital cities of China by the urban construction department of MOC and the Pollution Control Department of State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). The Proposal was also published in two magazines: Environment Protection, Urban Development Research.

b. Proposal on Sustainable Western Transport was raised in June 2000.

c. Proposal on Improving China Highway Transport and Environmental Issues was submitted in October 2000 and published in the magazine of Environment Protection.

d. Proposal on Improving Environmentally Sound Integrated Transport System will be put forward in September 2001.

2.2 Four Paper Collections

a. Paper Collection on Urban Transport and Environment Workshop (both Chinese and English versions are available).

b. Paper Collection on Inter-urban Transport and Environment Workshop (both Chinese and English versions are available).

c. Paper Collection on Integrated Pilot Cities on Transport and Environment (both Chinese and English versions are available).

d. Paper Collection on Integrated Transportation and Environmental Protection Workshop (only English version is available).

2.3 Compilation and publication

One illustrated book Transport and Environment was compiled and published.

2.4 Case study on integrated transport in four cities

According to the proposals on improving urban transport and environmental issues, four pilot cities of TWG, namely Dalian, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Kunming municipalities, have respectively drafted the implementation program and some of the pilot projects within the programs have been put into practice.

For instance, Line 1 light railway in Dalian which is one of the five planned Light Railways with total length of 12.5km has been accomplished and is actually under test-run. The speed is now increased into 25km/h from its former 14km/h of the trolley bus. The Line 3, which connects the urban area to Jinshitan with total length of 50.3km, started to be under construction in September 2000 and it is expected to be completed and will start to operate in June 2002. The vehicles of the new model used for Light Railway have been improved, the planned speed increased into 70km/h and the total body length of a vehicle is 25.2m now.

Shenzhen municipality has drafted the integrated transport and the railway transport program. The first phase of subway construction, including the northern part of Line 1 and southern part of Line 4, with its totally lengths of 19km, has started and it is expected to start its operation by the end of 2004. At present the One-Card traffic system has been put into service and IC card is widely used in buses, minibuses and taxis. The number of new type of minibuses consuming natural gas in compliance with Euro 1 and Euro 2 standard has been up to 1650, which is 61% of the total amount. All minibuses of the old type are planned to be phased out by the end of 2001. Furthermore, road traffic management penalty regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone have been revised and the penalties of running the red light, not fastening the seat belt and over loading etc., are more severity.

Kunming municipality will accomplish the construction of a special lane for public transport in Renmin road in October of this year in addition to the existing Beijing road. Several urban road crossings have been broadened and channelized. The cooperation with Zurich of Switzerland is going on with the emphasis is on developing suburb railway and urban traffic management.

By three years' effort, Qingdao municipality was awarded as Environmental Protection Model City in 2000. Plenty of resident areas have been built up in the northeastern part of the center to reduce the travelling flow to the south resident area. There are 140 One-way-roads, which have been developed and the traffic jam has been greatly alleviated. Moreover the vehicle emission annual tests and roads test are strengthened to decrease the vehicle tail exhaust pollution.

The four pilot cities have made great effort and contributions in building up roads, increasing public transport lanes and buses, and implementing a "traffic smoothness project", initiated by Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Construction.

2.5 Urban Transport and Environmental Indicators have been worked out based on the related analysis, the research and including 108 items in seven aspects.

3. TWG member

Totally 12 domestic and international experts have participated the work and activities of TWG over the three years. They are:

Chinese experts:

Cochairman

Wang Yangzu

Minister advisor of State Environmental Protection Administration of China

Song Jiahui

Director General of Rescue & Salvage Bureau of Ministry of Communications

Liu Shi

Deputy Director of Maritime Bureau of Ministry of Communications

Xia Qing

Vice President of Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences

Li Xiaojiang

Vice President of China Research Academy of Urban Planning and Design

Shi Qixin

Director of Transport Institute of Tsinghua University

Xu Bamin

Senior Engineer of China Automotive Technique Research Center

International experts:

Cochairman:

Rudolf Petersen

Director of Transport Division of Wuppertal Institute of Germany

Paul Baron

Professor of Urban Planning Department of Dortmund University of Germany

Heinrich Braendli

Director of Transport Division of Swiss Federal University of Technology

Stein Hansen

Economist of Nordic Consulting Company

Michael P. Walsh

Air quality experts of U.S.A

In addition, Mr. Tang Dagang, Liu Hong, Ma Lin, Wang Liqiang, Wang Huichen, Wang Ming, Feng Hao, Liu Chang, Chen Xiaoxia, Susanne Boehler (Germany) etc., also made contribution to the technical work of the working group.

4. Proposed study topic

In order to be in line with our western development policy and due to a good preparation for the prophase work of highway construction in the west, we proposed to initiate the pilot study on Highway Strategic Environmental Assessment jointly carried out by the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), Transport Research Academy and the Wuppertal Institute of Germany.