People within Beijing's Fourth Ring Road will never be more than about 1 km from a subway station once a new citywide mass-transit rail network is completed in 2015, an official said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference, Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of Beijing's municipal committee of communications, said that by that time, 8 million people will use the subway every day, up from the current 2.9 million.

He said that by 2015, about 45 percent of all journeys made in the capital, including those by bus, will be on public transport, up from 34.5 percent at present.