The Line 2 of Wuhan Metro (Chinese: 武汉地铁二号线) is the first underground metro line crossing the Yangtze River. The line started its trial run on September 25, 2012,[4][5]
and officially opened on December 28, 2012.[3][6] It is Wuhan's second metro line after Line 1, and the city's first underground line, since Line 1 is mostly elevated. Line 2 runs in a northwest–southeast direction, connecting Hankou and Wuchang, including Hankou Railway Station and major commercial districts.
The number of single day passengers on Line 2 has exceeded 500,000 on Jan 1, 2013, the first weekday after its opening, excluding elders holding free passes.[7] When more lines interchangeable with Line 2 open around 2015, the passenger volume could reach 1 million per day. And such number was consistently reached by April 2017. To accommodate such huge traffic numbers, all stations on Line 2 have been extended to the length of 8-car trains for future use.[8]
Line 2 is an important metro line in the Wuhan Metro system for being able to carry the heavy cross-Yangtze traffic in Wuhan.
On the first day of the system's operations, 132,000 passengers were counted entering or exiting the system at the line's last station in Wuchang, Optics Valley Square (Guanggu Guangchang). By the early 2013, the weekday daily ridership (entries + exits) at the same station was counted at 95,000.[17] As of April 2013 the daily ridership of Line 2 averaged 383,600 people per day.[1]
On August 23, 2012, five stations were renamed according to the result of a poll.
Jinse Yayuan and Mingdu Stations were firstly named after nearby real estate development, and was subsequently renamed as "Changgang Road" and "Yangjiawan" respectively to avoid advertising for the development.
"Hankou Railway Station Station" has been renamed "Hankou Railway Station" to avoid unnecessary repetition and pronunciation challenges.
"Jia" in Pangxiejia has a homophone that tells the story of history as the site of Metro station was once a section of the ancient city walls of Wuchang that were built along the Pangxiejia ridge.
"Xiaoguishan" replaced Tiyu South Road (Tiyunanlu) to make the historical places more easily recognizable.[18]
Stations of Line 2 provides female only waiting area during hours of operation, following the example of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Tehran and Mexico City, to protect female riders from sexual harassment.[21][22] Wuhan became the first city to set up female only waiting area in China.[23]
Partial naming rights of Jianghan Road station of this line was sold to a local snack producer, Zhouheiya (Zhou's dark duck), and has aroused public discontent with the Wuhan Metro Group company.[25] Some are upset by the fact that Metro company sold the rights without public input; some are because the product is not of high taste, and might affect the image of the city; some think it is fine, for selling partial naming rights is a good way to attract funding from the private sector, and does not materially affect the quality of the service.[citation needed]
As of November 23, 2012, all sale of partial naming rights are canceled.[26]
The rolling stock for Line 2 is currently 6-car trains, with 100 km/h (62 mph) max speed, 80 km/h (50 mph) operational max speed and 36.6 km/h (22.7 mph) average running speed. The collection shoe is installed on the lower part of the vehicle. The third rail is a mix of steel and aluminum. A full train provides 176 seats, and can carry 1276 passengers by Chinese regulation of 9 people per square meter. In the future 8-car trains will be used.[8]
3D map
2D map
