CHINA: The city of Nantong has become the 46th in China to open a metro network, inaugurating its first line on November 10.
The 39·2 km Line 1 runs from Pingchao in the northwest to Zhenxinglu in the southeast, broadly paralleling the Yangtze River. It serves 28 stations.
The line was inaugurated with a ceremony at Grand Theatre station, attended by Mayor Wu Xinpeng, Wang Hui, Director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress, and Wang Zhi, Chairman of Nantong Urban Rail Transit.
Located around 100 km northwest of Shanghai, Nantong is home to around 7·7 million inhabitants. The 6th city in Jiangsu province to develop a metro network, it has plans for four lines with a total length of 170·8 km plus a commuter rail network adding a further 153·2 km. Construction of Line 1 began in December 2017 and has cost a total of 27·2bn yuan.
Line 1 is operated by a fleet of 35 aluminium bodied Type B trainsets supplied by CRRC Nanjing Puzhen. These six-car trains are 119 m long, with capacity for up to 2 132 passengers. They are designed to operate at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The trains are reported to be the first in China to be equipped with transparent OLED screens, where the passenger information is displayed on the vehicle windows. The first trainset was delivered in December 2020.
Services are initially operating from 06.00 to 22.00, with a peak headway of 6 min 30 sec.
Construction of the 20·9 km Line 2 began in October 2018. Scheduled to open in March 2023, this line will link Xingfu in the north with Xianfeng in the east, interchanging with Line 1 at Hepingqiao and Wenfeng stations in the city centre.
