CHINA: The simultaneous opening of two new lines in Zhengzhou at 11.18 on December 26 has lifted the capital of Henan province from 22nd to 12th in the country’s metro rankings, with five lines in operation totalling 206·3 route-km
Running from Henan Sports Centre in the northwest to an interchange with orbital Line 5 at Henan Orthopaedics Hospital in the southeast, Line 3 is 25·5 km long. It has 21 stations, of which six are interchanges. Line 3 was approved by the city government in November 2013 and the Henan Provincial Development & Reform Commission the following September; it has been under construction since December 2016.
At present services operate between 06.00 and 23.00, with an average headway of 6½ min, offering an end-to-end journey time of 48min. A 6·1 km southeastern extension to Yinggang was approved by the National Development & Reform Commission in March 2019; this would add four more stations, and is due for completion by 2024.
Line 3 runs around the western and southern sides of the city centre, while the new Line 4 with which it connects at Henan Sports Centre serves the north and east. Running from Laoyachen in the northwest to Langzhuang in the south, this line will eventually have 27 stations, although two have not yet opened. Authorised at the same time as Line 3, construction of this route began in January 2017.
The two lines are operated by a fleet of 34 six-car Type A trainsets supplied by CRRC Qingdao Sifang, which are 140 m long. Six-car Type A sets supplied by CRRC Zhuzhou are also used on Line 5, while lines 1 and 2 are worked by Type B trainsets from both builders.
