On February 8, a relevant person in charge of Chengdu Rail Transit Group stated during an online interview on the 'Chengdu Face-to-Face · Party Conduct and Government Conduct Hotline' program that during the Spring Festival travel rush, Chengdu Metro will increase frequency and extend operating hours to facilitate passenger travel.
It is understood that in the first five days of the Spring Festival travel rush alone, the average daily passenger volume of the Chengdu Metro network reached 2.7897 million trips, an increase of 39.85% compared to the first five days of the 2017 Spring Festival travel rush. It is expected that with the superposition of holiday commuting passenger flow and Spring Festival home-returning, family-visiting, and travel passenger flows, the passenger volume of the Chengdu Metro network will increase slightly from February 9 and continue until February 14.
'This year is the 8th Spring Festival travel rush since Chengdu Metro opened.' According to the introduction, for Chengdu Metro, the passenger flow trend during the Spring Festival travel rush is quite obvious, showing a pattern of high at both ends and a U-shape in the middle. It is understood that in response to the daily increasing passenger flow at Chengdu East Railway Station on Line 2, Chengdu Metro has increased capacity during the evening period, changing from the low-peak period before 21:00 to the flat-peak period, and from a 6-minute 15-second interval to a 5-minute interval. At the same time, in response to the concentrated return passenger flow on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Chengdu Metro will extend operating hours across the entire network, with extensions ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the connection of the last trains.
In 2017, Chengdu Metro opened three lines, and the operating mileage now reaches 179 kilometers. Especially after the opening of the first loop line, Line 7, the accessibility of Chengdu Metro has significantly improved. The average daily passenger volume has now reached 3 million trips, and the public travel sharing rate has reached 40%. At the same time, Chengdu Metro currently has 11 lines and 15 projects under construction, totaling 368 kilometers.
According to the introduction, driverless, i.e., fully automatic driving, will be applied to Chengdu Metro. The first phase of Chengdu Line 9 will be designed and constructed using fully automatic driving technology and is expected to open by the end of 2020. It is understood that there are already more than 50 driverless lines worldwide, and in China, fully automatic driving has been achieved on Shanghai Line 10 and Beijing Yanfang Line.