China’s annual December Metro openings bonanza

It has become a popular pastime among Chinese railfans to get really excited at around the end of December, as that is the period of a slew of metro openings across the country. And being China, that means dozens of extensions and lines opening.

Why the end of year?

Partly, this is because local governments want to say they met the deadline (read: “Schedule says a 2021 line opening, December 30 is still 2021”). However, my observation is that the country really does start to shut down approaching Chinese New Year. which happens around February. This event, however, also includes the world’s largest annual human migration, known as Chunyun.

If a project is not complete by December, very few people will be available to work on it in January and February as everyone has gone to their hometown and ancestral villages for about 4-6 weeks. With this in mind, a big effort is made to open substantially complete lines in December to avoid losing momentum.

There usually is 5-30 km of new metro opening in each city every year. With a ‘bumper’ year for a city reaching over 100km of new openings, sometimes all its openings occur around the same time.

However, it is important to note not all openings in China are in December:

• In 2021, 33 cities collectively opened about 1,140 km of new metro, only about half (590 km) in 16 cities opened in December.
• In 2020, 24 cities opened 1,185 km of metro, with about 700 km in 14 cities opening in December.
• In 2019, 32 cities opened 815 km of metro, with about 275 km opened in 15 cities in December.
• In 2018, 16 cities opened 660 km of metro, with about 380 km opened in December across 10 cities.
• In 2017, 21 cities opened about 775 km metro with about 465 km opened across 12 cities in December.

Line and station openings start up again around May.

China Type A and B trains feature a lot in this roundup, watch this video for a fascinating description of metro technology in China.

Here are the openings in December 2021:

Beijing

Huge openings on December 31, 2021 in preparation for the 2022 Winter Olympics. In total, 57 km of new subway opened, bringing the total length of the Beijing subway to over 750 km.

Missing Link Projects

The central section of Line 8 is a key 4.3 km segment though historic Beijing that finally connects the north and south segments of the line ,which have been operating in two separated lines since 2018. This complete new north-south corridor will finally provide relief to the congested central section of Line 5, which reaches up to 50,000 people per hour per direction (pphpd) of demand during the AM peak.

Another key section is the completion of Line 14 under the newly developed Lize Financial Business District section of Beijing. Before this, Line 14 has been operating in two separated segments since 2014 with a 4 km gap. This was the result of some planning disorganization of the Lize central business district (CBD), delaying the construction of the massive five line Lize Business District Station and surrounding stations on Lines 14 and 16. This final connection will allow Line 14 to fulfill its role as a relief line to the eastern and southern arcs of Line 10. Line 14 is operated by Beijing MTR Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong MTR, who also operate Beijing Lines 4, 16, and 17.

New high capacity ‘express’ subway projects

The underground central section (or Phase I) of a new high capacity north south trunk Line 19 was conceptualized as a response to congestion on Line 4. The latter has sections crushed with over 60,000 pphpd of traffic volume during the am peak pre-COVID. The new Line 19 uses high capacity driverless eight car Type A trains capable of speeds up to 120 km/h. The 22.4 km long section that just opened parallels the central section of Line 4 and directly serves the Financial Street Beijing CBD. To speed up construction, a number of Line 19 stations were not opened and are bypassed by trains. Nonetheless, some of delayed stations are quite important, particularly Jingfengmen (interchange with Line 10), Ping’anli (interchange with Lines 4 and 6, and in the future Line 3), and Taipingqiao (serving Financial Street CBD).

Another new high capacity north south trunk line opened, the southern 16.5 km section of Line 17. This will eventually run between Line 5 and the eastern arc of Line 10, relieving both. The opened section provides a link between Beijing and the suburbs of Yizhuang. The line also uses high capacity eight car Type A trains and is, like Line 14, operated by Beijing MTR Corporation Limited .

Minor extensions

• Changping Line to Qinghe Railway Station: A short one station extension of the Changping Line south of Xi’erqi Station will help relieve the notoriously crowded Xi’erqi transfer. It will also serve the newly opened Qinghe Railway Station, where 350 km/h automated high speed trains run to the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics sites. The Changping Line will eventually be extended further south to provide additional relief to Line 13.
• Capital Airport Express to Beixinqiao: A short one station extension east to connect this airport express service to Line 5.
• S1 Maglev to Pingguoyuan: A short elevated extension of the rapid transit maglev opened to the future intermodal transportation centre of Pingguoyuan, allowing S1 services to connect directly with Line 1.
• Line 16 to Yuyuantan East Gate: another short one station extension south, continuing Line 16’ south to completion, eventually creating another high capacity north south trunk line. Like Lines 14 and 17 mentioned earlier, Line 16 is operated by Beijing MTR Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong MTR.
• Line 11: A 4km subway shuttle line connecting some of the 2022 Olympics sites. Originally a low priority line, but was fast tracked for the games. Line 11 is planned to eventually be an east west line running on the south side of Beijing serving the Lize CBD.

Shanghai

The world’s largest rapid transit system opened another two lines on December 30, totaling almost 60km, all fully automated:

• Line 14: a 38 km long, 31 station east west crosstown line. This highly anticipated project is a high capacity fully automated line using eight car Type A trains that passes through the some of the densest residential areas, the busiest commercial districts in Shanghai and the Lujiazui financial district. The line will divert passengers away from the congested Line 2 which already has a daily ridership of well over 1.5 million passengers.
• Line 18: The remaining 21km, 18 station section of Phase I, creating a new eastern tangential line in Shanghai allowing traffic to bypass the congested radial lines entering the city centree, particularly Lines 8 and 16. The line uses fully automated using six car Type A trains.

With these openings, Shanghai now has over 170 km of fully automated (GoA4 – Grade-of-Automation Level 4, the ultimate) metro lines, on a network that exceeds 800 km, becoming the first metro in the world to reach that length. The system now has 396 stations, creeping up to the system with the largest number of stations, the New York Subway’s 472.

Shenzhen

Line 20: A small branch line to a new Convention and Exhibition centre opened on December 28, pushing the length of the Shenzhen Metro up to 411 km. Eventually the second phase of Line 20 will transform this branch line into a 24 station 50+ km long coastal express line connecting a suburban centree of the neighbouring city of Dongguang to Shenzhen’s Futian downtown and to the Futian/Lok Ma Chau Checkpoint to Hong Kong. The line uses eight car Type A fully automated trains designed to operate at up to 120 km/h.

Qingdao

The highly anticipated Line 1 final section cross-harbour connection finally connecting the two sides of the city and their metro networks, opened on December 30. The newly opened section is 38 km long, with 26 stations, and transforms Line 1 into an insanely lengthy 60 km long, 40 station, crosstown line. However, construction has started for the northern section of Line 1, which will be split off as Line 7 in the future, bringing Line 1 back down to a more reasonable 35 km, 29 station, length.

Changchun

A new 2 km grade separation and extension project for Line 3, China’s first North American-style LRT line, which had first opened in 2002. The original at grade terminal and alignment approaching Changchun Railway Station was undersized and had traffic congestion issues with surrounding grade crossings. The undergrounding project allowed for Line 3 to isolate the line from surface traffic and creates a new station at Changchun Railway Station. Additionally, it allows for an extension to pass under the front public square of Changchun Railway Station and be extended two stations east to connect directly to Line 4, a low floor light metro line, not unlike Vienna U6.

We had linked to China’s LRT boom following Changchun’s LRT beachhead in an LR Friday Reads pointer to Tramways & Urban Transit’s roundup.

Tianjin

35km of new metro opened on December 28, 2021 along with an earlier 2 km extension of Line 6 that opened on December 7.

• Line 8 Phase 1: this 13 km, nine station, section was originally a phase two extension of Line 6, but was spin off and redesigned as the first phase of a new crosstown fully automated line using higher capacity Type A trains. Line 6 was preemptively extended 2 km east to meet up with Line 8 on December 7.
• Line 4: a 19 km, 14 station, first phase of a new radial line operating with six, six car Type B trains, but the entire line is designed to be expandable to eight car trains.

Nanjing

About 50km of metro opened in December 28, 2021 bringing the total length of the system to 427 km in length.

The 44 km, 13 station, mostly elevated suburban metro Line S6 to the neighbouring city of Jurong opened. Trains operates up to 120 km/h, with hourly express services using timed overtakes. Trains are four car Type B but the line is designed to use six car trains in the future.

Additionally, a minor southern 5 km long, four station extension of Line 2 serving the Hexi new development area opened.

Dalian

Line 13: a ridiculously long 43 km elevated suburban metro line that terminates just outside of urban Dalian opened December 28, 2021. Line 13 passengers still need to travel 40 km via Line 3 to reach Dalian city centre. As with other Dalian suburban metro lines (called rapid rail or Kuaigui by the locals), the line, uniquely in China, has no platform screen doors.

Wuhan

73 km of new metros opened on December 26, 2021, bringing the length of metro to 435 km in the notorious city:

• Line 5: a new 34.5 km, 25 station, fully automated line running along the south bank of the Yangtze river opened using six car Type A trains.
• Line 6 Phase II: a 5 station, 7 km extension brings Line 6 further west into the suburbs.
• Line 16: a new 31.7 km, 12 station, mixed elevated and underground suburban metro line running southwest along the north bank of the Yangtze river opened. Initially using four car Type A trains which operate up to 120 km/h, the line is designed to operate six car trains. I was really surprised about this one, most of the line only started construction in mid to late 2018, I did not expect them to complete it so quickly.

Wuhu

This 15.8 km long, 11 station, east west heavy Line 2 monorail line completing Wuhu’s phase 1 expansion plan and connecting to Wuhu’s main railway station opened on December 28. It connects with Line 1 using a monorail to monorail cross platform interchange. Along with the 30km north south Line 1 which opened in November 2021, Wuhu in a few months went from having no rapid transit whatsoever in early 2021 to a two-line 46km heavy monorail network using CRRC-Bombardier (now CRRC-Alstom) JV fully automated Innova monorail trains.

Luoyang

The 18 km long, 15 station, fully underground north south Line 2 opened on December 26 and connects the city’s two main railway stations. Similar to Wuhu, Luoyang went from having no rapid transit whatsoever in early 2021 to possessing a two line 43km metro system, and completes Luoyang’s phase 1 expansion plan.

Ningbo

Line 5: a 27.6km long, 22 station, fully underground the first phase of what will be a loop line opened on December 28, 2021. Uses six car (GoA4) fully automated Type B trains.

Nanning

Line 5: A 20.2 km long, 16 station, first phase opened on December 16. The line is a tangential line running from the southwest to the northeast of the city.

Nanchang

Line 4: a 39.6km long, 29 station, line opened on December 26, a southwest to northeast line connecting the traditional city centre with a new city centre in the southeast along with a new main high speed railway station (Nanchang West Station).

Hefei

Line 4: a 41.4 km long, 31 station line opened on December 26, to provide another line connecting the city centre with a new main high speed railway station (Hefei South Station). The western segment will be spun off into a different line in the future known as Line 6, which is now under construction.

Foshan

Line 2: a 32.4 km long, 17 station, east west line that opened 28 December 2021 that directly connects Foshan, a neighbouring city of Guangzhou, to a massive high speed railway station serving the Guangfo Region in Guangzhou (Guangzhou South Station). This extension takes the Guangzhou-Foshan Metro complex beyond 620 km in length.

How does China build so much metro, year after year?

Volume.

Plus standardisation that the French can only dream of, and more authoritarian, top-down powers over land use.

The large volume of construction and standardisation has created a local ecosystem of tunnel boring machine (TBM) and construction equipment manufacturers, suppliers, and skilled labour. But most importantly, project management and implementation experience – all which are constantly in play in a pipeline of back to back projects. There is always another project around the corner as cities are continuously expanding their networks in a multi-decade masterplan.

The big ace that China plays is that all metros design and development is performed at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design in Beijing, which employs over a thousand designers and engineers. The Academy also designs LRT lines, and other mass transport for the entire country, as well as the metros and LRT lines that China exports.

In China’s recently released 14th Five-Year Plan Transportation Plan, urban rail is planned to expand from 6,600 km to 10,000 km in length, with the proportion of airports with rail access to go from 68% to 80%. The China Academy of Urban Planning and Design will be busier than ever.

Thanks to Dr Jonathan English for his insight from his visit to the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.