The metro in Hangzhou

Isaac Lam

Research Question

Using the information acquired from interviewing people at the Hangzhou railway station, what do both the citizens of Hangzhou and the tourists think about the transportation system of Hangzhou, like the bus system and the metro system.

Goal of this investigation

Through interviewing people at the metro, we are seeking to understand why people take the metro instead of other methods of transportation, what aspect of the metro makes them want to take the metro and what aspect of the metro makes them want to not take the metro. Also, we are going to ask them about their opinion on the pricing of the train tickets as pricing is one of the biggest factor that decides whether a person would take the metro or not.

General Summary of Interview

By interviewing people around a big metro station, we learned a lot about the opinions of different people, both local and foreign on the Hangzhou metro. Even though the answers vary a bit, there was a general consensus in their answers as most of the opinions all agreed on the main points, though there was a slight divide in opinion between the locals and the tourist/foreigners.

Although the metro is very successful at transporting people around Hangzhou, there were a few major drawbacks that many people mentioned that usually resulted in people taking other forms of transportation, which included the metro always being jam-packed with people all day long and the metro not having enough train lines, thus not covering the less popular regions of Hangzhou.

Detailed analysis

The first drawback was that the metro was always jam-packed with people at all times, making it extremely uncomfortable to take the metro. Unlike Hong Kong which was packed only at rush hour and at certain stations, the Hangzhou metro was packed at nearly most of the day and at most stations. Because of this many people said that they would rather take the bus where it is much more spacious, along with the extra chance of having a seat, even though the bus might be less convenient due to congestions on the road.

For example, when asked what are the downsides of taking the metro there was a general consensus that the metro was one of the most uncomfortable form of transportation in Hangzhou, due to the amount of people taking the metro. However most of the people decided that the benefits far outweigh the downsides, and they would still take the metro for its convenience and its lack of traffic jams.

Some of the reasons why the trains are always full at all times of the day are because the trains are slightly smaller in comparison to Hong Kong, decreasing the train capacity, thus decreasing the amount of people able to fit in 1 car, giving the illusion that there are more people in the train. Another reason might also be due to the lack of train lines in the Hangzhou metro. Since the Hangzhou metro is a work in progress, the Hangzhou metro only has 3 lines and a limited amount of stations. Because of this, each station will have to support a significantly larger amount of people than in Hong Kong. Whenever a train arrives at a station, a larger amount of people will enter the train, making the train jam-packed all day long. To fix this problem, the Hangzhou metro could open more lines (which they are currently working on right now) or they can put more trains into service, splitting the large number of people in each station amongst more trains, decreasing the load per train.

The second drawback was the lack of train lines. Apart from an increase in the amount of people on each train, the lack of train lines makes accessing the metro more inconvenient if u live far away from the metro station. For example, the metro is a 30-minute walk away from our school. Whenever we need to use the metro, we either have to take some form of transportation to take us to the metro station or walk 30 minutes to the metro station. Even though walking 30 minutes to the train station might not be too bad, it completely defeats the purpose of the metro being convenient Also, in some cases, the train station does not cover entire regions in Hangzhou, forcing people who live there to either use some other form of transport to get to their destination or take the bus to the nearest metro station.

Many people we interviewed wished for an increase in the amount of metro lines as the lack of metro lines really limited the usefulness of the metro. Because of this many people only used the metro if they were going to places which were very close to the metro stations. Otherwise, they would just take another form of transportation. For example people would usually only use the metro to go between work and home as those places were usually near the metro station. However when they needed to go to other places that are more rural, they would usually just take the bus to their destination. The problem of not having enough lines is also recognized by the metro company and they are planning to add more lines to the metro system in the future, allowing people living in more rural areas of Hangzhou more convenient access to the metro.

Interviews & Transcript

Interview 1: Lam, Isaac. “A Female Tourist.” 29 Aug. 2018.

The first interview was an interview with a female tourist. She seemed to be between her 30s and 50s and had children with her. She was pretty open and was very willing to share her opinion

Interview 2: Lam, Isaac. “An Old Local Male.” 29 Aug. 2018.

The second interview was an interview with a male local. He was fairly old, and seemed to be around his 60s. He seemed to be less open, however was still willing on giving his thoughts

Interview 3: Lam, Isaac. “A Young Local Male.” 29 Aug. 2018.

The third interview was an interview of another male local. He was fairly young and seemed to be in his 20s. He was pretty open and friendly and was willing to give his opinion after a bit of talking and introducing ourselves.

Q: When thinking about the metro, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

A: I don't take the metro often since I am a tourist, however it seems pretty convenient

A: It's decent, quick and convenient

A: Its really packed because there are a lot of people in the metro at all times

Q: Where do you usually use the metro to go to? Why do you use the metro out of all other possible transportations to go to these locations?

A: I usually use the metro

Q: Are there any places that you go to regularly but do not use the metro? Why do you not use the metro to go to these places?

A;

Q: What do you think about the pricing of the metro? What would be the highest price you would be willing to pay for the metro? Why?

A:

Q: What are the benefits of using the metro?

A:

Q: What are the downsides of using the metro?

A:

Q: In what aspects do you think the Hangzhou’s metro system could be improved?

A:

Citation

“Hangzhou Metro, Zhejiang.” Railway Technology, www.railway-technology.com/projects/hangzhou-metro-zhejiang/.

Lam, Isaac. “A Female Tourist.” 29 Aug. 2018.

Lam, Isaac. “An Old Local Male.” 29 Aug. 2018.

Lam, Isaac. “A Young Local Male.” 29 Aug. 2018.

Transit in Hangzhou

Joson Suen

Research Question:

• What are the benefits and weaknesses of Hangzhou’s transport system, and are inhabitants satisfied with its functioning?

What was the point of this investigation?

• We wanted to gain an insight into the functioning of Hangzhou's transportation system, namely the train. We also wanted to receive Hangzhou citizens' opinions on the positives and negatives on the transportation, and learn more about the culture of the city of Hangzhou through the trip.

Travel Plan:

- Walk to metro station (approximately 15 minutes)

- Take train to East Hangzhou Railway Station (approximately 30 minutes)

Response / Analysis of Trip

A flood of busy commuters scramble around the packed concourse, beeping their cards to the scanners and disappearing around the corner, hurrying to arrive at their respective destinations. They are just a fraction of the almost one million people in Hangzhou who ride the city’s rapidly advancing metro system every day.

According to RailwayTechnology.com, the government of Hangzhou has invested over 10 billion dollars into the construction of just Line 1, with 12 more lines planned as the metro system rapidly expands to cover nearly the entire span of the city. As the time required for civilians to walk to the nearest train station decreases, the metro starts to assert its role as the dominant or primary form of transport in Hangzhou, similar to the situation experienced by Hong Kong.

On August 29th 2018, our group went to the East Hangzhou Train Station for a field trip. This is one of the largest stations in Hangzhou and, like can be found in Hong Kong, is connected to a shopping mall. In this station and the area around it, including the shopping mall and stores, we interviewed various members of the public about their usage and opinion of the various forms of transportation available to them, especially the train. These questions were intended to allow us to get a deeper insight into Hangzhou’s culture and civilians’ lifestyles and how they were affected by transportation.

During the trip, I was pleasantly surprised at how willing the civilians were to take a minute to be interviewed. My group had expected that it would be difficult since everyone would be commuting to work or somewhere in a hurry, so we decided to locate an area which would hopefully contain people with more time, which was a “square” or open area in the shopping mall, which contained benches and massage chairs. To our relief, there were many people sat there, and although most were either asleep or using their phones, we were able to find quite a few people to interview.

Personally, I was quite nervous before the interviews as I felt strange approaching strangers. As a naturally shy person, I had to conquer this nervousness in order to complete the interviews, so that was a minor challenge.

Our interviewees spanned a wide range of occupations. Some were tourists, some were expats who had lived in Hangzhou for several years, and some were locals. We aimed to find people who fit into a variety of categories in order to collect more opinions and see if there was a distinguishable trend between the interviewees’ backgrounds and their answers.

In terms of the results of the actual interviews, I think they were very predictable and it was easy to distinguish a trend or pattern between them. Every single one of the interviewees said that the train was their preferred form of transport, and that they took it daily. When asked about what makes the train so popular, almost all answers were something to the line of how efficient and convenient it was. The expansion of the metro system and the addition of new lines has resulted in most people being able to walk to a train station nearby, and that, coupled with how cheap the train rides are, has resulted in the train being a prime transportation method. However, this comes with repercussions because, as many of our interviewees stated, the train is quickly becoming overcrowded, especially at rush hours. Yet when asked how the metro corporation could fix or combat this issue, not many could suggest a possible solution. But despite how jam-packed the metro is daily, there was a clear consensus that the train is a highly effective and favored form of transit. One interviewee even said: “I do not even remember how I used to get around without the train, which is thankfully right next to my house. I don’t know how I would survive.” This was very eye-opening for me as I realised the extent to which Hangzhou’s residents relied on the metro in their daily lives.

In my opinion, the language barrier was a slight hindrance during the interview process. Even though our interviewees were able to understand what we were saying, and vice versa, I feel that if our Chinese vocabulary level was more advanced, we would have been able to collect more detailed results through asking more thought-provoking and open-ended questions. Another way we could have improved the interviews would be to ask spontaneous questions based on previous answers, to allow the interviewee to build or elaborate on a certain point, instead of always sticking to the script.

After some initial hesitation, our confidence grew and we were able to complete quite a few interviews in a relatively short amount of time. I feel that the interview questions could have been more thought-provoking in order to draw out a more detailed answer. The interview location was good as it not only contained a lot of people who were regular users of the metro, but who also were not in as much of a hurry as others, therefore allowing us to have time to interview them. Overall, the field trip was successful and I would say that we achieved our goal.

Citation:

List of Interview Questions (and answers):

Joson

Q: How often do you take public transportation in Hangzhou?

你多久坐一次交通工具？

Answer(s):

Daily

Every day

All the time

Q: What do you think of the pricing of public transportation?

你觉得交通工具的价钱怎么样？

Answer(s):

Reasonable

It’s cheap

Not expensive

Q: What are the positives of how public transportation is organized?

杭州的交通工具有什么好处？

Answer(s):

It’s convenient

It is easy to use

It’s well organised and convenient

Q: What are the negatives of how public transportation is organized?

杭州的交通工具有什么坏处？

Answer(s):

There’s a lot of people and it’s crowded

Not really any weaknesses

Better designs

Q: Which is your favorite form of transportation, and why?

那一种公共交通是你最喜欢的？为什么？

Answer(s):

The train, it’s convenient

Train, because there’s a station right next to my house

Train, it’s cheap and fast.

Q: In what ways do you think Hangzhou’s transportation could be improved?

你觉得杭州的交通系统有什么方法能进步？

Answer(s):

Never thought about it

Add more lines and more stations so that it is more accessible

I don’t have any ideas for improvement.