Beijing Metro now longer than NYC's

China is having some major-league Railway Mania, and not just in high-speed trains.

Railway Gazette: Beijing metro lines open
List of metro systems - Wikipedia
Beijing Subway - Wikipedia

On December 31 of last year, the Beijing Metro got some extensions and the first part of a new line: Line 9. It went from 336 to 372 route-km of length, passing New York City at 337 route-km. NYC still has twice as many stations, however. Construction continues, with 10 more lines to be added to the current 15 lines, 4 of them to be added this year. By 2020, Beijing should have 1000 km of Metro trackage.

Beijing is still behind Shanghai at 425 km and London at 402 km, however. Other Chinese cities are no slouches. Guangzhou's Metro, at 215 km, is about as long as Paris's, and Shenzhen's Metro, at 178, is a tiny bit longer than Mexico City's. Hong Kong's, at 174 km, is a tiny bit longer than Chicago's, and Nanjing's, at 85 km, is a tiny bit longer than Oslo's. Several other Chinese cities also show up on the list.


The Beijing Metro started service in 1971 on a trial basis -- people had to get letters from their work units permitting them to ride. That ended in 1981, and the Beijing Metro got a second line in 1984. Beijing officials decided to pick up the pace of construction in 2000 when they got to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and so it's been going at breakneck speed.

Most of the others are much newer than Beijing's. Every one listed in Wikipedia: Shanghai: 425 km, 1995, Beijing: 372 km, 1969, Guangzhou: 215 km, 1997, Shenzhen: 178 km, 2004, Hong Kong: 174 km, 1979, Nanjing: 85 km, 2005, Chongqing: 76 km, 2005, Dalian: 63 km, 2003, Tianjin: 84 km, 1984, Wuhan: 29 km, 2004, Shenyang: 28 km, 2010, Xi'an: 20 km, 2011, Chengdu: 18 km, 2010.

I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

amtrakowitz wrote:I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

It's actually hard to screw up a tunnel. If it doesn't literally collapse -- in which case we'd be seeing signs already -- it'll last for hundreds of years.

amtrakowitz wrote:I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

The only thing I could see going wrong with this is their economy crashing and some routes being abandoned from lack of use.

And, I wouldn't really say that "Nothing over there is built to last", I would say that the world has a throwaway economy, where consumer products are meant to be replaced in 5 years when it breaks, instead of being repaired.

I wouldn't be surprised if the cars didn't last as long at first, especially if they're a new builder and need to iron out their problems. New York has had a century to figure out the optimum style of car, and even it has problems sometimes. However, Beijing also has the benefit of needing just one type of car, having just one size of tunnel, requiring just one style of power transmission and so on, so they'll have a simpler time once they do get things ironed out.

Profitable or Not, China Doubles Down on Investments in New Metro Systems « The Transport Politic

With China’s growth slowing — a product of internal economic changes as well as the continued poor performance of the U.S. and Europe — the country’s government has decided to accelerate investments in its cities’ rapid transit networks as part of a larger transportation infrastructure program. About $127 billion (or 800 billion yuan) is to be directed over the next three to eight years to build 25 subways and elevated rail lines as a stimulus whose major benefit will be a increase in mobility for the rapidly urbanizing nation.

Though China’s high-speed rail network (now the largest in the world) has garnered most of the headlines when it comes to transportation there, the nation’s investments in urban rail have been just as dramatic and serve far more people on a daily basis. Its three largest metropolitan areas — Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing — feature the world’s fourth, fifth, and sixth most-used transit systems, providing more than five million rides each daily, more than similar networks in New York or Paris. Most of these cities’ lines opened since 2000.

By 2020, they should have 7000 route-km of metro-rail line in 40 cities. That will be about 5 times the US's length of similar lines.

Yonah Freemark also has a map that shows what's being built where, though I could not find where he got his numbers from. I've found Rapid transit in the People's Republic of China - Wikipedia, but that is not as complete as YF's sources.

neroden wrote:

amtrakowitz wrote:I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

It's actually hard to screw up a tunnel. If it doesn't literally collapse -- in which case we'd be seeing signs already -- it'll last for hundreds of years.

Why would signs of collapse have to be immediate?

China's building ghost cities. Lots of this infrastructure will decay due to lack of use.

Why would signs of collapse have to be ... ck of use.

It is unwise for you to have such thoughts about China.

amtrakowitz wrote:I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

So you're suggesting that everything recently built there whether it's buildings, railroads, airports, or metros will start to fall apart in a few years?

george matthews wrote:It is unwise for you to have such thoughts about China.

Is that a threat?

So you're suggesting that everything recently built there whether it's buildings, railroads, airports, or metros will start to fall apart in a few years?

That's very likely.

One of the ghost cities, BTW: Chengchou's "New District".

amtrakowitz wrote:

So you're suggesting that everything recently built there whether it's buildings, railroads, airports, or metros will start to fall apart in a few years?

That's very likely.

What about the heavily used infrastructure like PEK Airport which is the second busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger throughput only to ATL? Do you expect it to decay soon?

FWIW, Beijing Capital Airport's 1990's expansion (which tripled its terminal size) was funded by a 30 billion yen ODA loan from Japan (later funding came from the European Investment Bank). Whether that had any influence over contractor/subcontractor integrity, I don't know, though the Chinese government violated the terms of the ODA by listing the newly expanded airport on the Hong Kong Stock exchange without first informing the government of Japan (which prohibits use of ODA funding for private ventures).

*By the way, Japanese ODA aid has been used on the Beijing Metro also, to the tune of $257 million.

Moderator's Note: Let's not get into sweeping generalizations about Chinese society and works of engineering without proof that they apply, either generally or specifically. However, if you have specifics about the system, its quality and reliability, or how it was built (thanks for adding that postscript, kaitoku) please do post.

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As for my opinion, keep in mind that no more than 500 years ago China was the single most powerful country in the world by a large margin. It also produced more quality goods than anywhere else in the world - for a while, more than everywhere else - and had the most advanced construction techniques and public works. With that in mind, I don't expect China to go back to the days when "Made in China" was universally synonymous with "cheap and poor quality."

amtrakowitz wrote:

neroden wrote:

amtrakowitz wrote:I don't expect it to last very long. Nothing over there is built to last.

It's actually hard to screw up a tunnel. If it doesn't literally collapse -- in which case we'd be seeing signs already -- it'll last for hundreds of years.

Why would signs of collapse have to be immediate?

Because *it's hard to screw up a tunnel*. Did you read the comment you replied to?

Edit: if you want more details, look up how tunnel engineering works. Either it's structurally sound, or it isn't. If it isn't, signs of collapse start appearing immediately. If it is, it'll be fine with very little maintenance until there's a great deal of water damage (which takes a long time), or an earthquake/volcano/etc.

China's building ghost cities. Lots of this infrastructure will decay due to lack of use.

Sure, that's a possibility. (Though there is no way that will happen with ALL the metro lines they're building, it could easily happen with some of them.) The tunnels will still be structurally sound.

Beijing adds a further 70 km of metro - Railway Gazette
On Dec 30 last year, Beijing opened 69.8 km of route for its subway-train system, extending it to 442 route-km and 261 stations.

This includes one new line and five extensions of four existing lines. One existing line has a ring topology, following a ring road, and the line with two extensions is close to becoming another ring line, following another ring road. Another line got an extension that connects it to some other lines.

Now carrying around nine million passengers a day, Beijing Metro expects to put at least one new line into operation each year between 2013 and 2015. This would bring the network to 19 lines and 561 km; in the longer term the capital’s metro is is projected to reach 1 000 km by 2020.

In route length, Beijing is a little bit ahead of Shanghai (437 km), and both cities are ahead of every other city's rapid-transit system (List of metro systems - Wikipedia). Next in line are Seoul (406 km), London (402 km), and NYC (337 km).