The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
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The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
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Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#2It will be interesting to see how long China's frenetic metro expansion lasts. Japan went through a very similar phase after the war, but this slowed down markedly after the Bubble burst. With population growth now strongly negative, there's no business case for building more and Japan completed what's likely its last line a few years ago.
https://gyrovague.com/2015/12/18/the-last-subway-line-in-jap... (Disclaimer: my blog)
China, too, faces an upcoming and likely even more severe population crunch. India, on the other hand, is only just getting started and is now building metros with a similar pace as China in the 1990s.
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#3I spent the weekend in Shanghai a couple of months ago and used the Metro to get around. It was modern, clean, on time, easy, and cheap - around €10 for an unlimited 72 hour pass. I was astonished by its sprawl, some lines over 50km and one close to 100km. It felt like it dwarfs London's tube.
Criticisms? It was clearly at or near capacity, which I guess explains the rapid growth. There was a mass of security theatre, X-ray machines at the entrances to some (most?) lines but lots of people were just ignoring the attendants and walking quickly passed the machines without having their bags checked. It seemed difficult (impossible?) to pay with anything but cash, at least at the stations I visited all machines were cash only (I guess not so modern after all).
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#4It will be interesting to see how long China's frenetic metro expansion lasts. Japan went through a very similar phase after the war, but this slowed down markedly after the Bubble burst. With population growth now strongly negative, there's no business case for building more and Japan completed what's likely its last line a few years ago. https://gyrovague.com/2015/12/18/the-last-subway-line-in-jap... (Disclaimer: m…
Just the increase of the urbanization degree from the current 56% to 70% in 10 to 15 years, as currently planned by the government, will increase the city population by almost 200 million.
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#5I spent the weekend in Shanghai a couple of months ago and used the Metro to get around. It was modern, clean, on time, easy, and cheap - around €10 for an unlimited 72 hour pass. I was astonished by its sprawl, some lines over 50km and one close to 100km. It felt like it dwarfs London's tube. Criticisms? It was clearly at or near capacity, which I guess explains the rapid growth. There was a mass of security theatre…
> It seemed difficult (impossible?) to pay with anything but cash
That's true and it is not convenient for visitors. Local people usually just use public transportation card (magnetic/contact-less smart card) everyday and don't have to pay with cash (you can charge the card with credit card or Alipay). Some station gates also support paying with NFC smartphones (eg. Xiaomi), and I think that's modern :-)
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#6I stayed in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Taipei over the summer last year. Taipei's metro is the best overall; certainly not as crowded as the other two. Convenience is about the same, i.e. payable by cash-loading debit cards. Tokyo's metro have gotten old. I honestly think, a couple of Tokyo's underground lines need to be replaced.
Just remember, no food allowed in transit.
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#7I spent the weekend in Shanghai a couple of months ago and used the Metro to get around. It was modern, clean, on time, easy, and cheap - around €10 for an unlimited 72 hour pass. I was astonished by its sprawl, some lines over 50km and one close to 100km. It felt like it dwarfs London's tube. Criticisms? It was clearly at or near capacity, which I guess explains the rapid growth. There was a mass of security theatre…
I usually find cash annoying, but as the fares are so ludicrously cheap (3-6 yuan), when I was there I didn't find it so much of an issue.
One thing that I didn't like about the Shanghai metro was the fact that it closes at like 11pm, but other then that it was a very good experience
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#8I spent the weekend in Shanghai a couple of months ago and used the Metro to get around. It was modern, clean, on time, easy, and cheap - around €10 for an unlimited 72 hour pass. I was astonished by its sprawl, some lines over 50km and one close to 100km. It felt like it dwarfs London's tube. Criticisms? It was clearly at or near capacity, which I guess explains the rapid growth. There was a mass of security theatre…
In the Shanghai's metro, I was really impressed by the ads using persistence of vision in the tunnels :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsdF834vXkQ&t=0m32s The quality is better in person than in this video, because the camera's shutter speed creates artifacts.
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#9I stayed in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Taipei over the summer last year. Taipei's metro is the best overall; certainly not as crowded as the other two. Convenience is about the same, i.e. payable by cash-loading debit cards. Tokyo's metro have gotten old. I honestly think, a couple of Tokyo's underground lines need to be replaced. Just remember, no food allowed in transit.
[deleted]
Re: The Evolution of China's Metro Systems
#10It will be interesting to see how long China's frenetic metro expansion lasts. Japan went through a very similar phase after the war, but this slowed down markedly after the Bubble burst. With population growth now strongly negative, there's no business case for building more and Japan completed what's likely its last line a few years ago. https://gyrovague.com/2015/12/18/the-last-subway-line-in-jap... (Disclaimer: m…
But unlike Japan, isn't China's infrastructure still well below demand (there were some articles about 3+ hour commutes in greater Beijing posted to HN some months ago)?
Even if demand will flatline and then slowly decline, they'd still need to build loads just to meet it adequately.