Beijing’s Subway System Bled $558 Million Last Year

choi

iyan Qi, 北京地铁年亏损额够建一座 '鸟巢.'  中国实时报, July 15, 2014
cn.wsj.com/gb/20140715/rec145803.asp

, which is translated from

Liyan Qi, Fast, Cheap and In the Red: Beijing’s Subway System Bled $558 Million Last Year. China Real Time, July 15, 2014.
blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/07/15/fast-cheap-and-in-the-red-beijings-subway-system-bled-558-million-last-year/

Quote:

“The subway system in China’s capital city is one of the world’s busiest public transit systems, carrying millions of passengers each day * * * Last year, a total of 1.74 billion passengers took the subway in Beijing, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Reform and Development.  Many of Beijing’s 21 million residents prefer the subway as a way to avoid traffic jams on the ground.

“Despite a large passenger turnover— during rush hour, people wait for several trains to just get on one — the construction and maintenance costs, coupled with the cheap, flat price of tickets, which cost just two yuan (32 cents), seem to be too heavy a burden for the system.

“The annual costs to run the subway [by Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp, Ltd 北京市地铁运营有限公司] nearly quadrupled from 1.34 billion yuan in 2007 to 5.33 billion yuan in 2013, according to a Xinhua News Agency report carried on the central government website last week. The reasons? In addition to operational costs, the city has been building up its subway lines at a frenetic pace, and each kilometer of new subway line costs about 1 billion yuan to build, the Beijing Evening News reported on Monday.

“In the meantime, to keep the system running, Beijing’s government has supported the operator for the past seven years with 22.1 billion yuan in subsidies, Xinhua said.

“ subway operators in other Chinese cities – such as Shanghai – already use distance-based pricing plans. In Shanghai, it could easily cost at least 10 yuan per ride to get around the sprawling city, and such higher costs have benefited the local subway operator. The Shanghai Shentong Metro Co, Ltd 上海申通地铁股份有限公司. said in its annual report that the net profits attributable to its shareholders rose 8.62% in 2013, to 121 million yuan.

My comment: I was thinking about presenting the budget deficit (always deficit) of Massachusetts Bay Transportation authority. But I give up it might be meaningless to compare, because MBTA offers subway, bus, commuter rail (to and from suburbs) and ferry--besides paying for pension of its employees.