Beijing A to B

They sure are getting busy with Line 4 as of late — just look at Taoranting station, with exit C nearly all done! Unfortunately, any attempt to quickly finish up Subway works was dashed yesterday (Wednesday, August 12, 2009), when workers cut into a 380V low voltage power line at 16:10, so reports local media.

That was it. You guys just made 200 folks living nearby lose power! Residents’ aircons and TVs — snap — just “broke” when the line was cut — even if on accident. By the way, living close by were mainly — seniors. And yes, it was mighty hot yesterday — temps flirted with the 40°C marker.

This sudden incident made the neighbors less than happy. 20 locals surrounded the Subway works site — obviously, more than a bit upset at the sudden power outage. Fortunately, power came back at 20:15, just four hours after the lights went out. In the meantime, those responsible for cutting out power will be — pardon the pun — held responsible, and compensation will be offered to all those hit.

Taoranting, by the way, is just one Subway stop north of the Beijing South Railway Station. This stop lies in south Beijing and is mainly in residential territory.

Reports from the Beijing Daily have it that there’ll be some changes to Lines 8 and 10 as of late:

• This impacts services today (August 6, 2009) and again on August 8, 2009.
• Services for Lines 8 and 10 will be extended by 20 minutes today and for a full hour on August 8, 2009. These affect the last trains, so train services will end later than usual.
• The Olympic Sports Center station will be closed beginning 17:00 on August 8, 2009. Please choose nearby stops — like Beitucheng or the Olympic Green.

Here’s our diagram if the above still is not clear.

It has never been easy to get your luggage from A to B at the Dongzhimen Airport Express terminus — especially if it’s not like a short visit with only two items of baggage. And hitherto, the only ways to get your bags out of the station are (a) either use the ramps and escalators by buying a standard CNY 2 ticket into the Lines 2/13 part of the station or (b) take a free exit at Dongzhimen — and climb the stairs.

There is, thankfully, an option (c) beginning as of late; the lifts at Dongzhimen went into operation for all as of Tuesday, August 4, 2009. (They used to be reserved for wheelchair users only.) Now, it’s a lot easier to get your bags from A to B inside Dongzhimen.

Oh — and by the way: a new Airport Express exit with two escalators will likely open by this weekend. It’s just another way to make Dongzhimen more accessible for all…

Mark the date — Tuesday, December 28, 2010: that’s when four new Subway lines are slated to open. These are:

• Subway Line 4 (Daxing stretch; Gongyixiqiao — Tiangongyuan)
• Subway Changping Line (Xi’erqi — Chengnan)
• Subway Fangshan Line (Guogongzhuang — Suzhuang)
• Subway Yizhuang Line (Songjiazhuang — Yizhuang Railway Station)

As an extra bonus (but which might also looks from those scared by monopolies), all AFC ticketing systems will come from one supplier. This makes system upgrades that much easier.

Additionally, all four lines are more for even more stretching in the long run. Line 4 sees both a planned extension in the north to Yongfeng and the Beijing Aerospace City and a southern link to the south to Gu’an, in Hebei, while the Changping Line extends further northwest to the Ming Tombs Reservoir by 2015. The Fangshan Line will hit Zhoukoudian and Yanshan in later plans, while the Yizhuang line could make it to Langfang, Hebei. Except for the Changping Line extension, which has a definite “finish-by” date, all other plans have been previously mentioned — but do not have definite dates.

Not mentioned are Lines 8 (South Gate of Forest Park — Huilongguan Dongdajie), 9 (Guogongzhuang — Liuliqiao) and 15 (Wangjing West — Houshayu), which are also slated for a late 2010 opening.

Some stats to throw out to you about the Beijing Subway in July 2009:

• Over 95,274,900 passengers
• Daily average: 4,142,400
• 73,320 train trips made (99.83% of these were ontime); extra 89 trains in use
• Maximum passenger flow: July 14, 2009 (4,509,800+ passengers)

That’s the second-to-last month before Line 4 enters operation!

Beijing’s Subway has recently been hit by at least one count of — anti-censorship stickers. It looks like one of those passengers had so much against the net blocks in force that he — resorted to George Carlin language, sticking a sticker (pardon the pun) that read: https://f***.gfw”.

The hashtag #f***GFW is often used in protest of the net censorship measures, which have removed direct access to Twitter, YouTube and a number of other social networking and Web 2.0 sites in China. And while the seemingly innocent Beijing Subway is just being hit by this, it just goes out to say how much an inconvenience the blocks are.

The sticker was found on a ticket fare gate on Line 13 — and may have been removed — but it lives on here in this picture (warning: strong language). It may have been removed as a result — after all, isn’t this micro-vandalism?

This article is cross-posted on the following textweit Content Sites: Beijing A to B (English only), techblog86

Both a reported case of a bad third rail at Xidan station and a train banging into someone at Nanlishilu station wrecked havoc this morning on Subway Line 1. Accidents started plaguing the line at around 08:30 today (July 17, 2009).

Reports coming in from official media cite accidents involving the third rail at Xidan station, which caused massive delays over 20 minutes. This involved two Line 1 trains.

At the same time, a case of a passenger falling off the end of the Pingguoyuan-bound platform resulted in not only the death of the passenger, but also a crash involving Line 1 train G113. This shocked passengers inside the train and, according to local mass transit forum reports, saw passengers smashing windows just to get out of the train. Reports also told of police, fire brigade and rescue service vehicles crowding Exit A at Nanlishilu station.

Line 1, sadly, has been plagued with accidents as of late. Just some time ago, explosions involving bad contact with the third rail plagued a westbound train just pulling into Fuxingmen station. The line is the only Subway line in Beijing to run up to three different kinds of Subway cars and is the city’s busiest Subway line.

12:20 update: While we have little to tell of regarding the Xidan incident, official media now confirm that at 08:25, a case involving a Line 1 train hitting a passenger who jumped off onto the tracks did actually happen. Meanwhile, Line 1 services have resumed shortly thereafter. The accident took Fuxingmen and Jianguomen station out of service on Lines 1 and 2 and also impacted the Batong Line.

Back in the days of Line 1 and Line 2, the Subway never equated with a — well, mobile chatroom. Signals were cut in the tunnels and iffy elsewhere. With Line 5, you could start a romantic conversation from Tiantongyuan North and still be kissing by the time you were down in Songjiazhuang — thanks to full mobile signal coverage.

Or is that still the case? OURMETRO forum folks report that Line 5 has a few mobile signal blackout spots: notably Dongdan station is hit. (This only affects the Line 5 bit of the station.) Beijingology folks also report that Chongwenmen (again, Line 5 only) is hit.

With the mobile phone now a part of our lives — something that we can’t do without — it would be nice to have some mobile coverage at these two stops. Right?

If you’ve ever gotten off at Huoying station on Line 13 as of late — somehow, you wish you hadn’t. Welcome to a world of poor traffic conditions, narrow streets and — just when you least expect it — a works site smack in front of the Subway stop.

Huoying is becoming an interchange with Line 8 by late 2010, but that’s not going to happen without the works site making its presence felt. Add to that traffic anarchy and flying sand (yes, it’s bad for you), and you can see why Huoying needs a makeover.

Traffic, in particular, can be awful. Just going near the square in front of the stop to do a U-turn can make you sit out for 20 minutes as you squeeze back on the road while nobody’s yielding to the other drivers. We sure hope you’re not driving yourself, as passing cars can create mini sandstorms as the wheels roll over the ground. There’s also this mess about no lighting at night — not good to walk home in the dark after a night of KTV at Chaowai.

But just before things can get any worse, those in government seem ready to right this major mass transit wrong. Local government body representatives are already suggesting that the narrow street in front of the station be widened to accommodate four lanes (that’s two in each direction), and the lighting issue has to be solved as well. Just as well before Line 8 call at Huoying — and makes it an even more important station.

The Beijing Subway’s home to — 7,000 lost Single Journey Tickets every day. Not only that — it’s also home to more folks who escape ticket checks than you can imagine. And that’s why the Subway folks are clamping down on the bad practise.

The Subway’s two biggest ticket fiends are folks who used forged ID to get free tickets, as well as those who in essence force their way out of the ticket gates, come hell or high water. There’s punishment coming, by the way: use fake ID, get a CNY 100 fine. Climb over fences, and you’re CNY 50 to CNY 500 poorer. Escape ticket checks or flaunt the faregates, and you pay ten times standard fares: CNY 20 for city lines and CNY 250 (wow!) for the Airport Express. If you break anything, you’re paying, too — for compensation.

This isn’t just the Subway people getting serious about this; nope, along with the rides and the checks come the police. To save you trouble, warning signs (in Chinese) are already up at a few stops to remind you to go to the Fare Adjustment counter if you’ve lost your ticket, or to risk a tenfold charge if you force your way through the ticket gates.

Just think of this — up to CNY 250 in fines in a Subway system boasting fares as cheap as CNY 2! It’s probably not worth it to risk a free ride — or at that, a free ride to the cops!