The Nanjing Metro is a rapid transit system serving the urban and suburban districts of Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, China. Proposals for a metro system serving Nanjing first began in 1984, with approval by the State Planning Commission granted in 1994. Construction began on the initial 16-station Line 1 in 1999, and opened in 2005. The system has 15 lines and 258 stations running on 625.73 km (388.81 mi) of track. It is operated and maintained by the Nanjing Metro Group Company. Future expansion plans include 30 lines set to open within the next few years, with several more awaiting approval to begin construction.
History
Early proposals In 1984 the first serious proposal for construction of a subway appeared in the Municipal People's Congress. In April 1986, the Nanjing Integrated Transport Planning group was established to research on how to implement a subway system in Nanjing. In December 1986 the team published the "Nanjing Metro Initial Phase". The phase consists of a north–south line, east–west line and a diagonal Northwest to Southeast line. The three lines meet in the city center forming a triangle. A revision of the "Nanjing City Master Plan" in 1993 added another line through the urban core, and three light metro lines connecting Nanjing's suburbs in Pukou and the at time proposed new airport. In addition a suburban railway to Longtan was proposed. A 1999 report on "Nanjing city rapid rail transit network planning" further proposed six subway lines, two subway extensions and three light metro lines. In 1994, the State Planning Commission approved the preparatory work for the subway only to have the entire metro project postponed in 1995 amid a national freeze on new metro projects. Major changes were made to "Nanjing Urban Rail Transit Network Planning" in 2003. The new master plan consisted of 13 lines, of which nine are subway lines and four are light metro lines. The new Line 6 will be a loop line connecting all the urban radial lines. The plan retained the original lines 1, 2 and 3 from the previous plan. According to the new plan, the initial phase would consist of the completion of Metro Line 1 and 2 by 2010. Together the two lines will form a basic "cross" network. By 2020 the completion of Lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 was to form a more robust "pound" shaped (#) network. Longer-term plans include the construction of a loop line connecting all existing lines. The plan also identified four subway lines crossing the Yangtze river.
First line The initial section of Line 1 from Maigaoqiao to Xiaohang received final official approval in 1999. In May 2000, the Experimental Station resumed construction with the entire Line 1 project in full construction in December. A western extension of Line 1 from Xiaohang to a newly built stadium was fast tracked after Nanjing won hosting the National Games. Line 1's initial section and the western extension started trial operations on September 3, 2005, running from Maigaoqiao to Olympic Stadium with 16 stations and a total length of 21.72 kilometers (13.50 mi). The opening of the Nanjing Metro Line 1 gave Nanjing the sixth metro system in mainland China after Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
The Formation of Metro Network Line 2 originated from the east-west line in the early planning stages, designed to connect the eastern Xianlin sub-city and western Hexi sub-city, with a plan to cross the Yangtze River. In December 2003, the construction of Olympic Stadium East station began, followed by the construction of experimental station Xinglongdajie (project name Suojie) started in December 2005. In mid-2006, all 19 stations (from Youfangqiao to Maqun) from phase I started construction officially, with a total length of 25.27 kilometres. The east extension of Line 2 was approved and commenced in October 2007, adding 5 stations eastward from Maqun station to Yangshangongyuan station, and an additional 2 stations to Jingtianlu station later. However, due to the geological problems and the resulting accident encountered during the construction of Jingqingmendajie station, the original cross-river plan of Line 2, along with the proposed metro ring line (Line 6) were cancelled. The route of Line 2 had been changed to go south to the terminal station Youfangqiao. The new round of network planning and construction of Nanjing Metro was impacted significantly by this change. On May 28, 2010, the phase I and east extension of Line 2 opened simultaneously with 26 stations and a length of 37.80 kilometres from Jingtianlu to Youfangqiao. The north extension of Line 1 connects main city and Jiangning district. The route starts from the northern side of the main city to the east-north direction to Dongshan, Jiangning via Nanjing South Railway Station. The construction of experimental station Hedingqiao began in November 2006, and the rest of the line started in the following year. The proposed extension included 12 new stations from Andemen to Longmiandadao, covering a distance of 18.01 kilometres. Another extension of this route was added with 3 new stations to the Jiangning university town in May 2008. On May 28, 2010, both the south extension of Line 1 and its own extension project entered service, starting from northern Andemen station to southern China Pharmaceutical University (CPU), bringing the total route length to 25.08 kilometres with 15 stations. The south extension of Line 1 is connected with Line 1, forming a Y-shaped bifurcation. On May 28, 2010, the total operating mileage of Nanjing Metro increased to 84.75 kilometres after the opening of Line 2 and south extension of Line 1. Line 1, Line 1 south extension and Line 2 formed a cross-shaped network framework, marking Nanjing Metro's entry into the era of networked operations.
Lines in operation
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