Transport system in Beijing

[liruoshui130251]

 

Hi everyone! I'm a student coming from Beijing, China and now studying in Waterloo.

Seeing that here's some posts about Beijing & China before 2010. I'd like to tell you more about the transport in Beijing.

There's quiet lots of different between north america and China.

Hoping you find someone talking to

Here's one thing I think is important for you to know...The permanent population of Beijing is 21 million in 2015.

(photo from official website)

At the beginning, just some photos that I took in 2014-2015.

 

FOTON BJ6160C6CCD Joined in 2014

 HUANGHAI DD6160S03 manufactured in 2008, as I known, HUANGHAI got permit to use the MAN design.

FOTON BJ6851C6BCD joined 2014 which reminds me the Xcelsior this is a 8m LNG bus

 

Some buses that retired in 2014-2015

KINGLONG XMQ6118G retired Dec 2015

 

all the four in the photo have retired

From left to right DD6118S11 BK6111D3 BK6141D BK6141D2

and this BJD-160A trolley bus retired in 2015, few months after this photo was taken

[liruoshui130251]

BJ6123C7BCD-2 manufactured in 2014

 

XIYUAN Transit Terminal 

all the buses in this photo are LNG buses, so no window at the back.

 

Trolley bus

YOUNGMAN BJD-WG120G manufactured in early 2015

 

FOTON BJD-WG120F manufactured in early 2015

[liruoshui130251]

For the reason that there are more than 20 thousands buses in more than 100 of diff models, I will jump to subway now...

Subway Line 10, XIDIAOYUTAI Station, opened in 2012

Subway line 8, SHICHAHAI Station, opened in 2013

 

and older Subway line 2, opened in 1984, Train: DKZ16,  manufactured in 2008

 

Heavy traffic is crazy sometime, normally it looks like this.

2nd ring road.(Total of 6)

Transfer station at noon

 

City Rail which was designed for sightseeing (to the Great Wall with 1$)

[liruoshui130251]

Some cool stuff you may find

160km/h level Highspeed Rail CRH6F (CRH6A-200km/h, CRH6F-160km/h, CRH6S-140km/h)

New design of 350km/h Highspeed Rail (model not determined)

[liruoshui130251]

Some data:

Beijing Public Transport Holdings (Group) Co., Ltd. operates most of bus services(written as BPT,which is a littiled bit puzzled because at lots of places people will use BJBUS=BeiJing BUS rather than BPT).

Beijing Subway Operation Co., Ltd. operates subway services.

Up to the ending of 2015, there are 22366 buses in BPT, including 1673 electricity buses(most are trolleybuses), 2249 CNG buses, 5260 LNG buses, and 13184 diesel fuel buses.

BPT has 847 normal bus routes, 171 long distance bus routes and 2 sightseeing routes. These numbers are coutinue growing every month.

The number of passengers per day in 2015 has an average of 10.63million and a maximum of 12.41million.

There are 18 subway lines operating everyday, using more than 4000 carriages.

On Mar. 26, 2016, the number of passengers for subway was 12.099 million and this is the first time that this number reaches 12 million.

 

it would be so hard to upload pictures of all the bus model...I will continue update this posts will both pic and info.

Questions welcome~

(I have put this data on my wordpress->liruoshui130251.wordpress.com)

[TheAverageJoe]

Thanks for sharing, Not too much stuff on here outside of North America.

[liruoshui130251]

On 2016/4/25 at 3:10 PM, TheAverageJoe said:

Thanks for sharing, Not too much stuff on here outside of North America.

Thanks for your reply~

I'm trying to understand how transit works here and still feel puzzled.

I will write more info about how buses in Beijing works, hoping that you can help point out some differences or just make some comments.

Probably the bus+subway fans in Beijing is similar to the number of registed people in cptdb. Not find any foreigner.

 

[liruoshui130251]

1CAD = 5.1RMB this week

or $1 = ￥5.1

How to take a bus

 

Ticket Service

for bus longer than 14m, there will be a ticket seller, the driver will not provide ticket service

for shorter bus, there may be a ticket seller. if there isn't a ticket seller, the driver will supervise and you buy ticket just like how you did in Canada.

The best way is buying a transport card, you can get it at every subway stations, that's the easiest way, this will always give you a discount. (card deposit:￥20, you can get this money back when returning the card);

 

Price

For single price route: ￥2 

For segmented pricing route

• Normal route

          ￥2 for the first 12km, above this distance ￥1 for each 5km

          so 29km will be ￥6 = $1.2

          Discount for transport card is 50%

• Long distance route operated by BAFANGDA : (definition see "Route" part)

          ￥2 for the first 10km, above this distance ￥1 for each 5km

          Discount for transport card is 20%

 

Get on a bus

If the bus have two doors, it's the same with canada.

If the bus have three doors, you should get on by the second door.

If you have a card, when you get on a bus, just tap it near the machine. otherwise you have to buy ticket yourself or by ticket seller on the bus.

 

Get off a bus

no need to tell the driver, some bus may have a button to push, but most of the driver will not pay attention to that.

(As I know some driver think that's for EMERGENCY)

Just stand near the door, driver will stop the bus at the next stop.

This is because at most bus stop, there are people waiting for the bus or some people will get off.

for segmented price route, you need to tap your card at the machine again so you will pay for the distance you take (there will be machine near the door you get off)  ohterwise when you take another bus/subway, the machine will regard you as getting off at the last bus stop last time.

 

Bus Route:

Route 1-99 Main area, few of them are trolleybus routes

Route 101-140 Main area, most are trolleybus routes

Route 301-599 Main city

Route 601-699 Main city (normally longer than 5xx)

Route 701-740 Main city Long-distance

Route 801-998 Long-distance route operated by BAFANGDA

Route 特1-特19 Double-decker route (特=special)

Route 专1-专169 Short-distance for community (专=particular)

Route 夜1-夜36 MidNight Route (夜=night)

Route 快专1-快专107 Fixed Timetable & less stop (快=fast)

通勤车 For Zpark (通勤=Commute, 车=car/bus/…)

 

Route 1-599 are single price for Transport card, some aren't single price for buying tickets

Route 601-740 are segmented pricing

Route 801-998 have 20% discount rather than 50% by transport card

 

Operating hours

The longest one I know is Rt 44 from 4:30-24:00 (4:30am to 12am, in Beijing, they only tell the depart time at the first stop. )

normally, for some important route: 5:00-23:00, others are 6:00-22:00  (not accurate), some long distance route may be 6:00-18:00

36 midnight route start services around 11pm, and end services around 5am.

 

IMPORTANT

There are no schedule for passengers.

due to the heavy traffic, bus can't follow a strict schedule.

What happens is you may see three buses running on the same route coming together. The first one should be super crowded, the second one is crowded, the last one is empty...

it will be possible to see five buses on the same route coming together. only because of the traffic jam.

to show it clearly...here's a screenshot of real time bus (the distance between each bus stop should between 500m and 1.5km, this bus route have a total length of 28km)

Now the number of routes that provide real time bus service is 949 (in BPT)

[liruoshui130251]

How buses are organized

9 Main operating branchcompany under Beijing Public Transport Group

for each operating branch company has about 60 routes, about 1600 buses, and a repair shop.

there are overlaps between each region.

Each bus has a five or six digit number

e.g. 43249

4th operating company, 3 for diesel, 249 No.249 bus under this category

e.g. 950201

9th operating company, 5 for trolley bus, 0201 No.201 bus under this category.

second digit:

1 for LNG Normal Vehicle

2 for LNG Articulated vehicle

3 for diesel Normal Vehicle

4 for diesel Articulated vehicle

5 for trolley bus

6 for double decker

7 for CNG bus

8 for hybrid bus

9 for electric bus

the six digit version came out two years ago, because some company was out of number (e.g. 14999, next one should be 141000)

unfortunately, one company doesn't fully follow this rule so now there are some bus using number like 5135xx, but actually, they do not have more than 500 LNG buses.

LNG bus(short x1xxxx)

liquid natural gas tank at the back

FOTON BJ6123C7BCD-2

here's a screenshot from one of my video which record how drivers learning drivering this new bus

LNG bus(articulated x2xxxx)

small version, which is 16m level

BJ6160C6CCD

longer level is 18m(60ft)

JNP6181GVC

CNG bus(x7xxx or x7xxxx)

 

Most of the paintings in the past 15 years

Paintings in the first row are older, and paintings in the second row are what you can see now.

Two paintings in each column are used with similar model(e.g. the third column is double decker, the ninth column is trolley bus)

[liruoshui130251]

Inside view

this is the BJ6160CCD showing above, which becomes a new major model since 2013.

you can see the fare box(desk) at the right bottom corner, that's the place that ticket seller sitting at.

in the recent years, buses in Beijing use benz-like inside design.

 

Bus Stop

this is Night route 14, start services at 11:20pm, end service at 4:50, at the bottom you can see the arriving time (arriving time only available for night bus), above the arriving time is the price, ￥1=$0.2

TIP:

BEIJINGXIZHAN = Beijing West Railway Station, XI = West ZHAN = Stop/Station

GUOJIATIYUGUANGONGJIAOCHANGZHAN = The National Indoor Stadium Bus Terminal,

where GUOJIATIYUGUAN = National Indoor Stadium, GONGJIAO = Public Transport, CHANGZHAN = Bus Terminal with Parking Lot for buses.

The bus parking lot

At the two ends of each line there is usually a parking lot.

The parking lot may also be a Gas station, in the above photo, you can see a CNG station at the left and a LNG station at the right.

 

The bus repair shop

The bus repair shops always make funny mistakes.

For example, a BK6160K2 bus's model sign become BK6190K2(6160means 16m bus, 6190 means 19m bus, but the worker may not know this), BK6111CNG become BK6111CG...

Sometimes they use wrong logo. A JINGHUA bus may get a HUANGHAI logo after refurbishing.

 

And they always make impossible become possible.

A bus hit the lamppost.

it was repaired... they keep the initial first part of this bus and add some new stuff.

here's a photo that I took in Feb 2015, (manufactured in 2005 and retired at about Nov 2015)

this is not the only example, a trolley bus hit the tree like this and was repaired, a bus's airconditioner hit the bridge and also repaired... 

[brzyski]

It drives me crazy that the announcements in buses and subways are long and repetitive. A lot of unimportant things are said after they tell you what the next stop is.

They also alter the routes, numbers, etc. very frequently. Must be a result from poor planning.

 

It drives me crazy that the announcements in buses and subways are long and repetitive. A lot of unimportant things are said after they tell you what the next stop is.

They also alter the routes, numbers, etc. very frequently. Must be a result from poor planning.

 

[liruoshui130251]

14 hours ago, brzyski said:

It drives me crazy that the announcements in buses and subways are long and repetitive. A lot of unimportant things are said after they tell you what the next stop is.

They also alter the routes, numbers, etc. very frequently. Must be a result from poor planning.

 

It drives me crazy that the announcements in buses and subways are long and repetitive. A lot of unimportant things are said after they tell you what the next stop is.

They also alter the routes, numbers, etc. very frequently. Must be a result from poor planning.

 

yes, as I know, in the past two years, they changed routes almost every month. last year they changed more than 100 routes, due to the new community, new subways and other changes in the city. 

I just write some to tell what is include in the announcement

not fully finish the info about route changes.

thanks for your reply

[liruoshui130251]

The announcement

 

The normal version:

When bus leaves a bus stop:

车辆起步，-> bus is leaving the stop

请扶稳坐好，-> please hold tight and sit down

刚上车的乘客请往里走， -> passengers just getting on the bus please move backward

没卡乘客请投币/买票， -> passengers who don't have a transport card please put in coins or buy ticket 

前方到站是， -> the next stop is <- only this line will be displayed and broadcasted in English

北京南站南广场 -> South square of Beijing South Railway Station <- this line will be displayed and broadcasted in pingyin(= letter -> BEIJINGNANZHANNANGUANGCHANG)

When bus arrives a bus stop:

北京南站南广场 <- this line will be displayed and broadcasted in pingyin(= letter -> BEIJINGNANZHANNANGUANGCHANG)

到了，We are arriving at <- only this line will be displayed and broadcasted in English

here the order is opposite...the name of the stop come first.

请您从后门/前后门下车， -> please get off at the back door/front door(first door) and the back door(third door) 

下车请刷卡，-> please tap your card

车票请出示。-> please show your ticket

 

Other situation(no english display and broadcast)

I try to translate and keep the direct meaning, so that you can understand what word is using, but not fully direct translate

some of the routes' announcements will include few info of what buses you can transfer to.

some announcements may appear not very often, such as:

下车时， -> When you get off,

请您注意交通安全， -> please pay attention to the traffic

不要从车前猛跑， -> don't run in front of the bus

过马路时，请走人行横道，地下通道，过街天桥。 -> when crossing roads, please walk on crosswalk, underground tunnel and overpass.

The follow one only exists for segmented pricing routes.

本车为分段计价，  -> this bus is segmented pricing

为避免不完整交易多扣票款， -> in order to avoid Incomplete transactions and paying more

需上车刷卡， -> you need to tap card when getting on

下车再次刷卡。 -> and tap card again when getting off.

 

 

Route changes

last year about 10% routes were changed.

that's more than 100 routes.

this year, the company now says 40 routes will be adjested.

looking at the tipbar(looks like a page of the forum) no busfan believe with this...

Subway line 16 will start to operate this year, so buses running similar may be adjusted.

BFD, one of the company belonging to BPT is out of route number(now 8xx and 9xx), so routes with first number "7" are in danger, these routes(about 10) may be divided in to two part(without overlap, so you need to buy more ticket) or they may just be shorter.

the city is changing so fast that lots of old route should be changed. (I understand that)

the manager hope to let people use subways for long distance traveling. So it will be bus+subway+bus, but passengers doesn't agree with them.

the most unbelievable thing is that the manager want to reduce overlap to reduce the number of vehicles on road.

but the number of buses (public transport) is 25 thousands and total number of vehicles is 5 million.

[brzyski]

Bus+subway+bus is actually a great idea since you have such a huge and expanding network. People will agree with it if they can incorporate free transfer (within a fair time period) for card users. 

[liruoshui130251]

2 hours ago, brzyski said:

Bus+subway+bus is actually a great idea since you have such a huge and expanding network. People will agree with it if they can incorporate free transfer (within a fair time period) for card users. 

there are still lots of things to do. The transfer is always a long distance walk. Normally the distance is longer than 300m, which may equal to the distance between two bus stops here.

They really need to prove the fare system for transfer. Due to the heavy traffic, it's better to strict by distance rather by time period. Some crazy time(e.g. an accident on road) the bus moves 1km in 1h...so...some bus drivers even get off and chat...

they should try to connect the community bus and the long route in a better way.

thanks for your reply

[liruoshui130251]

Number of passengers this friday. Numbers are in 10 thousands. Each bar is a line. The top right shows that the total passengers that day is 9.68 million.

and saturday is 6.22 million.

more than 10 lines are being built