Nanjing no longer has the fifth longest metro network in China. That honour now goes to Hangzhou, but the irony of it is, we made the trains that enabled the city to steal our title. And providing for our shame is the 2022 Asian Games.
10 June was the date of our humiliation, as the Zhejiang provincial capital opened not one, but two extensions to its Metro Line 3.
The first of these was the main extension to Line 3 from the previous terminus at Chaowang Lu, adding 18 more stations to the route and taking it to Wenyi Xi Lu in the west of Hangzhou.
The other was also a western extension to Line 3, a branch off the main line, from South Xixi Wetland to Shima in the southwest.
All in, the two extensions added another 30.2 kilometres to the Hangzhou Metro network, reported Railway Gazette. This brings the entire system length to 450 kilometres. Nanjing’s stands at 427 kilometres.
And the reason for our embarrassment is the fact that trains for the new extension were built in our very own city, by CRRC Nanjing Puzhen in Pukou District.
But it’s all for a good cause; the 2022 Asian Games. Originally scheduled for 10 to 25 September, the decision to postpone on account of the COVID situation in China was taken last month, on 6 May.
Inside the Games has reported that as of Saturday 18 June, no new dates for the 2022 Asian Games have been confirmed as yet.
By then though, an additional section of Line 3 will also be operational, from Wenyi Xi Lu to Wushanqiancun, to take spectators to the Games, whenever they are finally held.
But is all hope lost? Will the northern extension to Nanjing’s Metro Line 1 expected to open before the year is out restore our rightful place and gain back a little of the lost face? It won’t be anywhere near long enough, so, no.
