Beijing nearly doubles bus, subway fares
Print Edition
THE Beijing government yesterday raised the bus and subway fares which are nearly double the previous prices.
For Beijingers, using the subway was cheap and punctual but also crowded.
Xu Hui, who lives in the capital’s northern Tiantongyuan but works as an editor in downtown Beijing, has already begun calculating the impact of the price hike.
She will now pay six yuan (less than US$1) for a single 24.2 kilometer trip, resulting in an extra 2,112 yuan annually. Previously, there was a flat 2 yuan rate for single tickets and unlimited transfers. Under the new fare prices, the minimum price for a subway ride will be 3 yuan, which covers 6 km.
“I can accept it. Compared with traffic jams on the road, I still prefer the subway,” she said.
The subway fare will cost 4 yuan if the ride is between 6 and 12km, 5 yuan for 12 to 22km and 6 yuan for 22 to 32km. If the subway ride is longer than 32km, one yuan will be charged for every extra 20km.
For bus passengers, a 10km ride will cost 2 yuan and 1 yuan for every 5km after that. Smartcard users will enjoy a 50 percent discount and student card users will receive 75 percent discount.
“I see relatively fewer passengers on Sunday morning on the subway, but there is no big difference,” said a citizen surnamed Liu.
According to the Beijing Subway Group, the No. 4 Line and western section of No. 14 Line receive 40,000 and 3,000 passengers between 7am to 8am.The real challenge may come during rush hours today, the first workday after the price hike. In order to ease increasing passenger flows, Beijing will add more buses on the road and send more staff and volunteers to stations.
Beijing’s first subway line opened in 1969. Seven years ago, it reduced bus tickets to as low as four jiao (6 US cents) and two yuan for subway tickets.
The number of passengers taking the subway hit 3.2 billion last year in Beijing, an increase of 350 percent from 2007. Subsidies jumped from 13.5 billion yuan in 2010 to 20 billion yuan in 2013. Overcrowding, financial burden and security concerns were the reasons for the price hike.
“I bought a house far away from the city’s center with cheaper price. But now I have to pay a single ticket of seven yuan every day. It’s an economic burden for me,” a user wrote on Sina Weibo.
“The ticket price is raised, and I hope the service can also be improved,” a citizen surnamed Xiao said. She hopes some of the money will go toward installing safety gates on the platforms of the city’s two oldest subway lines.
Beijing is home to 21 million permanent residents. The city currently has 527km of subway lines, which carry 10 million passengers daily.
The change has brought a touch of nostalgia to some of the city’s residents, not only for the low price transportation system, but also for an elapsed era.
At 9pm on Saturday, a girl stood on a train at Xidan Subway Station on Line 4. Her boyfriend stood on the platform, kissing her before the door closed and waving goodbye, to her and to the last two-yuan subway.
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