Life of Guangzhou - Monthly Metro Tickets Cause Overloads on Line Three

Since November, when the new monthly metro tickets were launched, Guangzhou's metro line three connecting downtown with the suburbs has begun suffering from overcrowding.

According to the metro company, since the launch of line three in December 2005 passenger numbers have increased tenfold from 30,000 to 360 thousand, with passenger numbers increasing 3% last month alone.

Metro staff member tries to help passengers get on the train before the doors close. (Guangzhou Daily)

Hard to find space on the train these days (Guangzhou Daily)

The main riders of line three live in the suburbs and work downtown, including the Tianhe, Yuexiu and Haizhu districts.

Many factors are causing the train crowding problem. For example, renting a one bedroom apartment in Tianhe costs at least 1500 yuan a month, but near the Changlong metro station larger apartments can be rented much more cheaply, causing more and more people to commute to work from the suburbs. Moreover, when using a 115 yuan monthly ticket card for 20 rides, it only costs 2.3 yuan for a 20-minute metro journey. To make matters worse, due to the financial crisis many people have given up driving private cars in favor of the metro.

To solve the overload problem, the metro company has developed a plan to add three more metro carriages for greater capacity by the second half of 2010, if possible. Now, metro line three is trying to increase the number of trains at peak times and extend its hours for better service.

(By Jessie Hwang, Stephen Roach)

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