Hangzhou Opens 1st Subway Line

Hangzhou's first Metro line will open officially tomorrow with a total length of 48 kilometers, the operators announced Thursday.

Tickets will be sold at Metro stops as of 2:30 PM.

Metro Line 1 is built in a "Y" shape with 31 stops. It takes less than 70 minutes to transport passengers from the southern to the northern part of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The Metro trains make 100 round-trips a day, and the capacity is 287,000 passengers per day. Fares range from 2 yuan (US$32) to 8 yuan.

The trains will run from 6:30am to 8:30pm at first, with the interval between trains at about 9.5 minutes.

Plans are to extend the hours to 10pm in three or four months, then to 10:30 PM.

Construction of the Metro line started in 2007, with a cost of about 22 billion yuan.

The line was expected to open last year, but "difficulties" delayed the opening, said Shao Jianming, chairman of board of Hangzhou Metro Group.

"Considering Hangzhou is a city with many lakes and rivers, there are many geological problems we need to solve," he said.

The Metro opened on a trial basis from Sunday to Wednesday, giving free rides to 220,000 people.

By 2020, Hangzhou is expected to have 10 Metro lines reaching urban and suburban areas.

Signage is found confusing for English speakers. The Metro's Chengzhan stop is very close to the city's main railway station, Hangzhou Chengzhan Railway Station.

The sign at the entrance to the Metro at that stop says "To Train." But to get to the city's railway station, passengers must leave the Metro station and walk two minutes.