On December 13, Hefei held a press conference on transportation as part of the series on implementing the 19th CPC National Congress. It was revealed that in the next five years, Hefei will plan and build an outer ring expressway and start construction of Phase II of New Qiao Airport.
　　All operating “yellow-label vehicles” in the city have been phased out
　　Over the past five years, the total mileage of highways in Hefei reached 20,700 kilometers, with first-class highways increasing 12.5 times. The “one ring and eight lines” high-grade highway network has basically taken shape, and the construction of national and provincial trunk highways has become a national model. A total of 176.42 kilometers of expressways were newly built or upgraded, and a number of interchange projects such as Jixian Road and Nanfeihe Road were started.
　　At the same time, Hefei has built an intelligent public transport dispatch system, achieving full GPS coverage of buses. 376 electronic bus stop signs have been put into use, and 500 buses have been equipped with free WiFi systems, making the city capable of “scanning QR codes to ride”.
　　Now, all operating “yellow-label vehicles” in Hefei have been phased out. New energy and clean energy buses account for 77.67% of the city's bus fleet, and 100% of taxis have been converted to gas, ranking first in the country.
　　Hefei to plan and build outer ring expressway
　　Liu Ming, deputy director of the Hefei Municipal Transport Bureau, introduced that next, Hefei will strengthen infrastructure construction to achieve a “single network” for transportation.
　　In the next five years, Hefei will start construction of the Hefei West Comprehensive Passenger Transport Hub and improve the “rice-shaped” high-speed railway network; accelerate the implementation of expressway capacity expansion projects and plan to build an outer ring expressway; implement quality improvement projects for national and provincial trunk highways, and fully complete the reconstruction tasks for first-class national highways and second-class and above provincial highways.
　　The reporter learned that the current Hefei Ring Expressway will be positioned as the inner ring. In the future, an outer ring expressway will be planned and built, consisting of the planned Shanghai-Shaanxi Second Corridor (reserved corridor), Hefei-Mingguang-Chuzhou Expressway (reserved corridor), North Yanjiang Expressway, Lu'an-Tongling Expressway (reserved corridor), and sections of the Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway, with a total length of about 380 km.
　　In terms of airport construction, the much-anticipated Phase II of New Qiao Airport will start construction, and flight and route networks will be expanded; the Yangtze-to-Huaihe Water Diversion Project will be advanced, and the Jianghuai Shipping Center will be accelerated.
　Three intercity railways and five municipal express lines to Nanjing and other places to start construction
　　Hefei will also implement a five-year action plan for building an integrated urban passenger transport system, forming a seamlessly connected urban passenger transport service system, starting construction of 3 intercity railways and 5 municipal express lines, and building a half-hour “commuting circle”.
　　It is understood that Hefei plans to build an intercity railway south station on the south side of the High-Speed Railway South Station. In the future, three intercity railways from Hefei to Nanjing, Ma'anshan, and Wuhu, as well as five municipal express lines from Hefei to Chaohu, Huainan, Lu'an, Lujiang, and New Qiao Airport, will all converge here.
　　In the next five years, Hefei Metro Lines 3, 4, and 5 will be put into operation, forming a rail transit backbone network; the conventional bus service network will be improved, and the public transport mode share will be greatly increased; the taxi industry reform will be deepened, and new business forms such as time-sharing rental, shared cars, and shared bikes will be encouraged and regulated to make the city more accessible and travel more convenient.
　　Hefei will also achieve the construction goals of connecting townships with second-class highways and larger natural villages with graded highways. The integrated urban-rural passenger transport bus transformation will be completed, realizing the “three stations in one” of charging stations, logistics distribution stations, and bus stations, and forming an urban-rural bus service network covering all townships (towns) and villages in the city.