Subway Delays: Cascade Effect

With all the newspaper articles on subway delays, there are a lot more situations that are not making the news.  One of them is the situation on Line #4 which is the ring line that more or less parallels the inner ring road highway.

 

During Friday afternoon rush hour, the line gets jam packed and if one train is delayed due to mass crowds, then it affect the others down the line in a cascade effect.  The signalling system basically disallows any train to run between two subway stations until the train ahead has cleared the station ahead.

 

So if Train A is stopped at a station A and is packed full, it is delayed due to the crowds and making sure the doors are closed properly, etc. etc.  If Train B is one stop behind and isn't as crowded, it still has to wait at station B until Train A is able to go ahead.

 

All this waiting and stopping causes the crowds to pile up at the stations and the situation gets worse since many people cannot get on the trains, and this cascades further and further down the line.

 

With Line #4 it's especially a problem as it's a ring line with several "pinch points" that cause these delays.  Regretably I have to take this line for a meagre two stops and at one of the most severe pinch points on the line:   the transfer with Line #1

 

Yesterday I waited around for 10 minutes and watched in agony as the countdown timer kept changing, and inreasing the wait time, as the signaling system had to keep adjusting for the delays.  Watching the crowds grow exponentially I gave up and walked out of there cursing.  Then I hoofed it down the street above ground for two stations to the transfer point with Line #1 and then got on Line #1 directly from the street.

 

This was a loss because the turnstiles will charge you for a minimum subway journey if you enter and exit from the same station which I did.   Then of course I had to pay twice by entering from a different station altogether.  In light of my current rotten financial situation where every RMB counts, this was a major frustration and loss.

 

The subway has its major drawbacks.  Back to the motorcycle as long as I can milk out this remaining tank of gas.