Beijing subway to use facial recognition technology

Beijing subway will use facial recognition technology to classify passengers to help guards take different security check measures, according to a top official of the city's rail traffic control.

Zhan Minghui, director of Beijing Rail Traffic Control Center, delivered a keynote speech on Beijing subway's response measures on large passenger flow at a forum on urban rail transit operation and development held in Beijing Tuesday.

Zhan said that while Beijing subway faces large passenger flow in the rail transit network every day, it has placed huge pressure on security checks of passengers and items.

To improve efficiency, the director said Beijing subway needs to promote the use of multi-channel security check machines and facial recognition technology.

Through setting up standards, the facial recognition system will judge and classify passengers first into groups and inform guards to use relative measures, Zhan said.

By October, Beijing had 23 subway lines in operation, with a total length of 678 kilometers and 394 stations. The rail network transports 12.3 million passengers on average each workday, with 10,560 trains running up to 1.95 million kilometers on the network every day.

Still, 370 kilometers of railroad are under construction and will be put into use within three years. By then, Beijing will have more than 1,000 kilometers of subway railroad, which can transport 17 million passengers a day.