On 28 Sept 2004, Metro Line One of Wuhan went into official operation using, and Wuhan became the fifth city in China with a metro service (after Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou).
The first 10.2km line (10 stations) is an elevated metro, so-called 'light rail' in Chinese terminology. It runs from Huangpu to Zongguan in the downtown area of the Hankou District, and it is the first one in the country to use a communication-based train control system, provided by Alcatel.
For its second phase, it will extend at each end to a total length of 30km to serve additional sixteen stations by 2010. The designed transporting capacity for line one is 30,000 people per hour, with a minimum interval of 90 seconds between two trains.
The construction of the second phase of the No. 1 line, the No 2. line, which will connect Hankou and Wuchang, and the No. 4 subway, which will link up Wuchang and Hanyang, will begin soon and are expected to be completed by 2010.
In the long run, the city will be blessed with an urban track transport network that is 220 kilometres in length and is capable of handling half of the city's public transport demand.
