The province of Jiangsu, our home, is also home to the most cities with metro lines in all of China. And if that’s not enough, recent openings together with those on the horizon shall soon also put the province in first place as regards total number of lines and track length.
On 28 June, Changzhou Metro Line 2 and Xuzhou Metro Line 3 began operation. The following day came the opening of Suzhou Metro Line 5.
Province wide, Jiangsu has at present five cities with operating metros, namely Nanjing, Wuxi, Changzhou, Suzhou and Xuzhou, more than anywhere else.
But why? It all boils down to requirements set down at the national level as to thresholds that need be met before any plan for a metro system can be approved.
The first of these is financial. A city in China need have an annual GDP of more than ¥300 billion in order to qualify for a metro, reports The Paper. In Jiangsu, all 13 cities meet the criteria. By comparison, Guangdong Province comprises 21 cities, many of which are relatively small and only able to dream of one day having a metro.
The other main criteria is a population of at least 7 million, of which the urban permanent population need exceed 3 million. With the release of the 2020 census, Guangdong still only has four cities that meet the criteria, while Jiangsu now has six.
With the first five all operating metro systems, so the sixth, Nantong, now has its first line under construction.
And so to the future. By the end of this year, Jiangsu is expected to usher in three new metro lines, namely the Nanjing Jurong Intercity Rail Transit, the west extension of Nanjing Metro Line 2 and Wuxi Metro Line 4.
It is also expected that by the close of 2022, Jiangsu will have 28 metro lines operating in 6 cities. Its total number of lines and track length will hence surpass Guangdong to become China’s number 1.
