Taking a glance at the latest Nanjing Metro map on board trains, one would be forgiven for thinking the city’s metro system had overnight swelled from seven to ten lines. Not so.
Yet, yesterday, 6th December, did see Line S3 open to passengers, after more than 3 months of test operations, while such are also getting underway for the map’s other two additions, lines S7 and S9 that are slated to begin operations by April.
Fortunately, the ticket machines are far less presumptuous; it is therefore happily not possible to buy a ticket to a place that does not yet exist.
The Nanjinger rode the new line from Jingmingjia Yuan to Youfang Qiao in a morning rush hour that saw as few as ten people in each carriage at the outset, just one stop from Nanjing South Railway Station, but loaded almost to capacity at the interchange with the Line 2 terminus.
With its trains decked out in red wine hangover purple and stations mostly a sickly green, during these first few days of operation, additional staff are conspicuous with their tally counters, measuring passenger numbers and flow.
As the Nanjing metro system swells, so do the number of stations with interchanges, as well as the stations themselves. This translates to more and more lengthy walks to make a connection from one line to another that are more reminiscent of the gargantuan People’s Square station in Shanghai.
Line S3 is also the first to traverse the Yangtze River over the Dashengguan bridge, bringing the latter into full operation, carrying not only the new metro line, but also high speed trains between Beijing and Shanghai, as well as their more sedate cousins.
As the year comes to a close, 2017 shall be marked as the year in which Nanjing opened not one, but two metro lines, showing the world that the pace of the city’s development is far from slowing, despite what the economic forecasters of doom may say.
