I complain a lot of things about Beijing, but public transportation, well I should put it this way - the direction the public transportation is moving to, is not one of them.
A new subway line, Line Five, launched in Beijing yesterday, with the mayor’s address and media’s applauds. I am not surprised to learn from different papers that the line “represents the most advanced subway technology in China” and “is 100% made in China”. Less than one year ahead of the Olympics, you could hardly find anything in Beijing that is not the best.
What I want to talk about is actually not the subway line itself, but a new price system took effect yesterday also. The ticket price for all subway lines, no matter how many times you transfer (as long as you do not go to the airport), is set at RMB 2 (USD 0.26). The ticket price for buses has been cut to RMB 0.4 (if you use public transportation card) last year. I guess Beijing now has the cheapest public transportation system in China, perhaps even among the world major cities. (Do they pay for subways/buses in Pyongyang?)
On the other hand, the transportation of Beijing is deteriorating. China has a booming auto industry nowadays, and has the second largest auto market only after US. So it is not a surprise to learn some Chinese call their capital “Shou3du3 (首堵）“, means the worst traffic, instead of “Shou3du1(首都)” the capital. Cutting the ticket price is suppose to encourage more people using public transportation instead of driving their own cars (for the great Olympics of course).
The only question I have right now is how long the price will last. There is no doubt the public transportation system is losing money for this, and Beijing government is subsidizing it. But is the Government doing so only for the Olympics? Subway systems are well-known for losing money. Hong Kong’s subway system is perhaps by far the most successful one, as it earns something. Guess who will run Beijing’s next subway line (Line Four)? MTR Corporation (Hong Kong’s subway system operator)! Will Beijing invite MTR Corp. only to make its subsidies more efficiently? Let’s wait and see what happens when Line Four launches.
佩服
让我想起考研时作阅读理解的感觉