Wuhan Metro

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The Wuhan Metro is an elevated and underground metro system in the city of Wuhan, China. It is referred to as a light rail system in Chinese terminology. The first line, located entirely within the Hankou part of the city, opened on September 28, 2004.

1 Lines
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Lines

[edit] Line 1

Line 1 is a 10.2-km line. The line has ten stations. In the future, by the year 2010, Line 1 will be extended from both ends, and will be extended into a 30-km line with 26 stations. Current Line 1 stations are: Zongguan, Taipingyang, Qiaokoulu, Chongrenlu, Lijibeilu, Youyilu, Jianghanlu (connection with future Line 2), Dazhilu, Sanyanglu, Huangpulu.

Controversy : Because of poor planning (the line was implemented on viaduct in the middle of the right of way of an unused railway line) and accelerate construction pace, ridership is now completely disappointing : 20,000 Trips/day instead of more than 500,000 planned (10 times less than the French Toulouse Metro Route) which for the same kilometers serves a city whose population and density are 5 times smaller than Wuhan urban districts (850,000 Hab. versus 4,500,000 Inh. for Wuhan urban districts). The main reason are :

poor location not serving historical and commercial city center as an underground link would have been probably necessary,

competition with buses which are parallelling the Metro line at less than 400 m and whose prices are globally cheaper and stations less spaced,

a very poor accessibility caused by the viaduct which need pedestrians to cross wide roads particularly dangerous to get to the metro line and moreover stairs to get to the platforms which make the pedestrian access trip very unfriendly,
the absence of fare integration of the whole network managed by several operators (i.e. Metro and Buses) whose interests are sometimes far different,

- the lack of real ridership planning,

the political will to be the sixth or seventh city with a Metro in China, before Shenyang or other competitive cities.

All of this led to a project costly, still unefficient that badly need to be integrated with the rest of the transportation system by at least :

an integrated fare structure
the creation of feeder bus routes (now in planning stage in 2006) than competitive ones,
and also probably in the long term, redesigning the central part of the line by the central historical city to make it more efficient and customer friendly.

[edit] Line 2

Line 2 will mostly be underground. It will run in a northwest-southeast route between Hankou and Wuchang, with two branches in Wuchang. The line is expected to be finished by 2010.

[edit] Line 4

Line 4, which will also be primarily underground, will be an east-west route serving the Hanyang and Wuchang areas. It is also expected to be finished by 2010.