The World's Largest Subway, and Other Chinese Adventures
by Alex Pasternack, Beijing, China on 05.15.07
In just over a decade, Beijing is set to have the world’s most extensive subway network. That may not shock you—this is China, after all—unless you know, as Lloyd’s recent post reminds us, that Beijing currently has one of the world’s weakest subway networks. The city is so large and the system is so limited that public transit penetration lingers at 30 20 percent, less than half that of most of the world’s developed cities. As Beijing's car population grows with its ring roads (Beijing is now hitting its sixth ring), stretching and clogging the city, planners are worried; by 2020 they are aiming for a subway web 561 km big, which will be wider than that of London’s (if not, we imagine, more sublime than Moscow’s aging soviet underground). Though the cost of the expansion has not been calculated, even before the 2008 "Green" Olympics brings a million visitors to the city, Beijing is expected to spend somewhere between 200-250 billion RMB on transportation upgrades, including new bus lines and the new subway lines 5, 8 and 10. (The current cost of a subway ticket in Beijing: 3 RMB, about 40 US cents.)
If the subway expansion doesn't work, there's always the world's largest underground city and road network...
Despite China’s passion for large numbers and larger record-setting superprojects (like the almost complete Three Gorges Dam), the chances of this actually happening (on schedule) seem as slim as a Beijing fried noodle. And its likliehood of helping is diminished in the face of increasing Los Angeles-style sprawl and the 1000+ cars per day that go with it. Still, the subway plan is impressive and badly-needed.
In that category, though, it already has a formidable rival: one of the world’s largest planned aqueducts. The South-to-North Water Diversion Project will cost over RMB 500 billion ($62 billion) and will bring water from the Yangtze River to the Chinese capital, which by some estimates is more parched than Israel. According to the China Daily,
The project comprises three canals, each running more than 1,000 kilometers across the eastern, central and western parts of the country.
The scheme, which is scheduled for completion around 2050, is expected to cost nearly 500 billion yuan ($62 billion).
Once finished, it will be capable of delivering 44.8 billion cubic meters of water annually, according to figures from the Ministry of Water Resources.
But then there’s the quality of that water. Not only are its banks are on the verge of collapsing, but the Yangtze is seriously polluted.
“The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible," says Yang Guishan, a researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “It's a pressing job to regulate such activities in all the Yangtze drainage areas and promote harmonious development of man and nature.”
Three Gorges Dam Project, Dam #6, Yangtze River, China, 2005, Edward Burtynsky
As Prof. Weng Lida, former head of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, points out, in the context of the effect of the Three Gorges Dam project:
“We have to take into consideration the proper settlement of the people who have been displaced, environmental protection, heavy silting and the prevention of geological disasters," said Weng who cautioned that “faster is not always better.”
There are some challenges for which super-projects can offer no solution. From now on, smart choices—be them good city planning, strict enforcement of regulations or the strengthening of the legal system—remain the best infrastructure for a China that is healthy environmentally and every other way too.
China can fund both the subway and the water projects; it has the capital. It should enforce environmental laws and spend a few billion cleaning up polluted rivers and providing better public sewage treatment facilities.
Projects are massive but the Chinese have the necessary resources. It is a willingness to use their resouces for water, transportation and ecological purposes that is important. Basic needs should be met but the upper echelon of government may not be willing to part with some of its wealth as wealth is a symbol of power.
adrianakau@aol.com
Well I have no doubt that they will be able to accomplish this project which is sorely needed. If the Chinese government decides they want to do something, come hell or high water they will do it, even if that means displacing millions of people, costing billions of dollars and destroying the environment in the process, they will still do it. But I imagine this will actually benefit the environment so can't complain much.
Just want to point out that 30% transit penetration isn't horrible; my city, Vancouver, Canada, has only a 20% "transit mode share" if you count only the core city. If you count the whole area, we have only a 10.8% transit mode share.
These figures come from Translink, 2005:
http://www.translink.bc.ca/vutp/downloads/3%20Transit%20Market%20Analysis.PDF
Another document says we only have a 18% transit mode share within the city of Vancouver, and that "[t]his level of transit market penetration is comparable to Toronto and Montréal."
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20050215/rr1.htm
Perhaps European and Asian cities are much better, but here in North America, Beijing's current transit penetration looks really good.
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Alex responds:
Thanks for your comment. Actually, I was mistaken, Beijing's real public transit usage is 20 percent--I corrected it above. Still, you make a good point: that number doesn't sound so bad. But numbers don't tell the whole story. Much of that usage relies on the bus network, which is often hobbled by horrible traffic, a result of surging car ownership (over 1000 new cars a day, and expected to increase 30 percent by 2010). And that car ownership is helping to drive down the use of public transit. Then there's the geography. I take it that Vancouver is relatively easy to walk around. Not so in Beijing, where getting from one long block to the next takes an eternity, not counting the adventure of actually crossing the street amidst a sea of construction and cars. That's crucial--Beijing is not a walking city by most counts. It will need to depend upon public transit: a better subway, better buses, and of course the bicycle.
Cheers.
Beijing really needs this subway system. The transportation is awful. By public transportation, it takes at least an hour to get anywhere more than two miles from your house. These subways will really help relieve the traffic both on the road, and in the subway stations themselves, as currently there are often so many passengers waiting to board the train that many of them can't get on and have to wait for the next train, or the next after that. My only regret is that I live in Beijing now instead of a few years into the future when these subways will be completed. Commuting will be a breeze then! Or at least we hope.