Beijingers say goodbye to low price transportation system

Beijingers will wave goodbye to low price transportation after the government raised bus and subway fares on Sunday.

The new fares double the current prices on average, but the price hike does not stop commuters who live far from their work from choosing public transport, especially subway.

For Beijingers, using the subway is cheap and punctual but also crowded. During rush hours, passengers are packed so tight they sometimes only have one foot on the ground.

Xu Hui, who lives in the capital's northern Tiantongyuan but works as an editor in downtown Beijing, has already began calculating the impact of the price hike.

Now, she will pay six yuan (less than 1 U.S. dollars) for a single 24.2 kilometer trip, resulting in an extra 2,112 yuan annually. Previously, there was a flat 2 yuan rate for single tickets and unlimited transfers.

Under the new fare prices, the minimum price for a subway ride will be 3 yuan, which covers 6 km.

"I can accept it. Compared with traffic jams on the road, I still prefer the subway," she told Xinhua.

The subway fare will cost 4 yuan if the ride is between 6 and 12 km, 5 yuan for 12 to 22 km and 6 yuan for 22 to 32 km. If the subway ride is longer than 32 km, one yuan is charged for every extra 20 km.

For bus passengers, a ride of 10 km will be 2 yuan and 1 yuan for every 5 km after. Smart card users will enjoy a 50 percent discount and student card users receive a 75 percent discount.

"I see relatively fewer passengers on Sunday morning on the subway, but there is no big difference," said a citizen surnamed Liu.

According to the Beijing Subway Group, the No. 4 Line and western section of No. 14 Line receive 40,000 and 3,000 passengers between 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Sunday, reduced by 8 percent and 12.9 percent respectively compared with the same period of last Sunday.

But the real challenge may come during rush hours on Monday, the first workday after price hike. In order to ease increasing passenger flows, Beijing will add more buses on the road and send more staff and volunteers to stations.

Beijing's first subway line opened in 1969. Seven years ago, it reduced bus tickets to as low as four jiao (six U.S. cents) and two yuan for subway tickets.

The number of passengers taking the subway hit 3.2 billion last year in Beijing, an increase of 350 percent from 2007. Subsidies jumped from 13.5 billion yuan in 2010 to 20 billion yuan in 2013.

Overcrowding, financial burden and security concerns were the reasons for the price hike.

"I bought a house far away from the city's center with cheaper price. But now I have to pay a single ticket of seven yuan every day. It's an economic burden for me," a user wrote on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo.

"The ticket price is raised, and I hope the service can also be improved," a citizen surnamed Xiao told Xinhua. She hopes some of the money will go toward installing safety gates on the platforms of the city's two oldest subway lines .

Beijing is home to 21 million permanent residents. The city currently has 527 km of subway lines in operation, which carry 10 million passengers daily.

The change has brought a touch of nostalgia to some of the city's residents, not only for the low price transportation system, but also for an elapsed era.

Pictures of subway tickets once used in Beijing have been widely circulating on WeChat, China's popular social networking app.

Beijing' s subways suspended service Saturday night to prepare for public transit fare hikes on Sunday.

At 9 p.m. on Saturday, a girl stood on a train at Xidan Subway Station on Line 4. Her boyfriend stood on the platform, kissing her before the door closed and waving goodbye, to her and to the last two-yuan subway. Enditem