Few suburban residents riding express services to city center

Commuter services linking Beijing's largest communities with downtown districts are struggling to attract passengers, with many saying they are put off by inconvenient timetables and traffic jams.

Transport authorities started running express buses between Tiantongyuan and Huilongguan outside the Fifth Ring Road in March as part of a 4.5-billion-yuan plan to ease the capital's chronic congestion.

Yet, despite the communities having a combined population of about 700,000, most buses are carrying no more than 50 passengers a day, staff in charge of the services revealed to METRO.

A residents survey by the Changping district traffic bureau in April found that 700 and 1,000 had bought prepaid travel cards in Tiantongyuan and Huilongguan respectively. However, staff say the actual usage is much lower.

"The demand is superficial," said Bao Weiwei, who works for the Tiantongyuan community website and is responsible for updating details about the commuter services. "It's too hard to coordinate each resident's working time and route."

Due to the poor passenger numbers, only the service to Financial Street is in operation across both areas, while the planned Guomao and Zhongguancun routes were delayed, with the latter set to launch on Wednesday.

"Registrations for the bus recently even dropped from about 50 to 15," said Liu Qiang, Bao's counterpart in Huilongguan. As explanation, he added: "The service leaves the Financial Street stop at

6 pm, when many white-collar workers are still at the office. That's why the monthly 168-yuan, one-way card is more popular than the 336-yuan round-trip card."

The commuter buses have won over some fans. Liu, an IT technician working in Financial Street who did not want to give his full name, said the service from Tiantongyuan is ideal as he has fixed working times. "It's also more comfortable than the subway, so I can take a nap on the way," he said.

However, many residents in both communities complained to METRO that the services are far from convenient due to the lack of bus stops. "I have to walk more than 15 minutes to get the commuter bus, which is further than the subway station," said Zhang Ming, a Tiantongyuan resident who works downtown and occasionally catches the night bus home.

A driver for the shuttle from the vast Tiantongyuan community to Financial Street, who gave his name as He, said his service has just four stops where passengers can board. "If you don't live near one of these stops, you're unlikely to want to use the bus," he said.

Traffic jams are also a major headache. "My bus was once blocked on the Lishui Bridge crossing for more than 30 minutes. Many passengers asked to get off so they could walk so that they stood a chance of getting to work on time," He added.

With congestion still proving a major drawback to bus services, transport experts have suggested authorities slow down their plans to add more express commuter routes.

Yu Lingyun, a law professor specializing in traffic management at Tsinghua University, urged the government to look at creating more bus-only road lanes, such as the one employed by the new service from the suburban Tongzhou district to downtown Guomao.

"There could also be more short-distance shuttle buses running between residents' homes and subway stations or public transport hubs," he added.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/31/2011)