Increasing Capacity
With new lines drawing more riders to the network and the fare reduction making rides more affordable, the subway has experienced severe overcrowding, especially during the rush hour. In response, the subway upgraded signal equipment to increase the frequency of trains and added to the capacity of subway trains. The minimum wait-time has been reduced to 2 min. on Line 2; 2 min. 15 sec. on Line 1; 3 min. on Lines 4, 5, 13, and Batong; 3.5 min. on Line 10; and 15 min. on the Airport Express. Lines 13 and Batong have converted 4-car to 6-car trains. Despite these efforts, during the morning rush hour, conductors at line terminals and other busy stations must routinely restrict the number of passengers who can board each train to prevent the train from becoming too crowded for passengers waiting at other stations down the line. As of August 31, 2011, 25 stations mainly on Lines 13, Batong, 1 and 5, have imposed such restrictions. Some of these stations have built queuing lines outside the stations to manage the flow of waiting passengers.
Lines 6 and 7 now under construction will reportedly have longer platforms that can accommodate 8-car B size trains. While lines 14 will use wide-body A size trains in 6 car sets. Also lines 3, 11, 12, and 16 could possibly adopt 8 car A size trains.
Read more about this topic: Beijing Subway, System Upgrades
Famous quotes containing the words increasing and/or capacity:
“Everywhere I go I see increasing evidence of people swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making.”
—James Anderton (b. 1932)
“People between twenty and forty are not sympathetic. The child has the capacity to do but it can’t know. It only knows when it is no longer able to do—after forty. Between twenty and forty the will of the child to do gets stronger, more dangerous, but it has not begun to learn to know yet. Since his capacity to do is forced into channels of evil through environment and pressures, man is strong before he is moral. The world’s anguish is caused by people between twenty and forty.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)