"The construction of rail transportation is really a strong stimulant of economic development because it involves all kinds of materials," said Shen Jingyan, Chief Engineer with MOHURD's Subway and Metro Railway Research Center.

The first phase of the Zhengzhou Line 1 project will consume 186,000 tons of steel and 1.4 million tons of concrete, said Zhengzhou construction department sources.

Construction will bring development to more than 30 industries, such as machinery, building materials, communications and advertising, Shen said.

Relieving pressure

The main goal behind subway construction is to ease traffic pressure, said Zhao Jie, Director of the Urban Transport Institute at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

Today, with the development of cities and growing numbers of cars clogging roadways, traffic congestion has become a serious problem.

"In order to solve the problem, we should find a way to make public transportation more competitive with private cars. The way to go is with rail transportation, which holds obvious advantages on time and energy efficiencies," Zhao said.

Ordinary buses reach speeds of 14-18 km per hour along their routes, while Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vehicles can get up to 20 km per hour. Subway lines, meanwhile, can reach 30-40 km per hour. Trains can also carry 30,000-40,000 passengers an hour, while an ordinary line of buses can only take 5,000 persons per hour.

"The subway is more efficient, convenient and comfortable and is also greener because it uses electricity," Zhao said.

Wang said the development of urban rail transit can ease traffic congestion and air pollution and is also important to a city's sustainable development.

Another benefit is that urban rail transit construction can also bring development to the areas along the lines, said Feng Fei, Director of the Economic Research Department at the State Council's Development Research Center.

"Any city with a subway system will see an increase in comparatively developed real estate and business areas along the lines," he said.

The sharp rise in real estate prices is an obvious example. He said Beijing's Line 1 brought real estate prices up in Tongzhou by 3,000-5,000 yuan ($439-732) per square meter when the line was extended to that area.

"Even before construction begins, real-estate prices have begun to rise in some cities," he said.

Even before Zhengzhou saw the beginning of construction on its Line 1 in June, real estate along the train's planned path doubled in price, he said.

Hard questions

Rapid rail development will bring about different challenges, said Lu Huapu, Director of the Institute of Transportation Engineering at Tsinghua University.

A city should carefully consider the necessity and the possibility when planning subways, he said.

"Necessity refers to whether a city really needs subways, which can be determined by its scale and population, and the possibility refers to the financial strength of a city, which can be valued by its gross domestic product (GDP) and fiscal revenues," he said.

The State Council set three criteria to assess a city's application for subway projects: Its urban population should exceed 3 million people, its GDP should surpass 100 billion yuan ($14.64 billion) and it should be able to collect more than 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in fiscal revenues.

Shen said the criteria were created early in 2003 to limit the number of subway construction projects but many cities considered building subways as their goals.

"Forty-two cities have declared that they have met the criteria and are ready to build their subways," he said.

It is not the first time Chinese cities have applied enthusiastically for subway projects, he said.

Facing an overheating situation of subway construction, the State Council took measures twice to halt projects across the country.

The State Council stopped approvals for new subway projects in 1995. It did the same in October 2002.

"We should not only think about building subways when mentioning rail transportation construction," said Zhou Xiaoqin, Vice Director of the Department of Transportation Business at the China International Engineering Consulting Corp.

He said subway construction costs can run more than 500 million yuan ($73 million) per km, while light rail can cost 200-300 million yuan ($29-44 million) per km and streetcar rail projects can be built for 20-30 million yuan ($3-4.4 million) per km.

"Subway construction costs are so high that local authorities should think over the plans carefully before they determine to build subways," he said.

Qingdao of Shandong Province and Chongqing both paused construction of their subways in the mid-1990s because of a lack of funds.

"Light rail is the most economical choice when a city lacks funds," Shen said.

But his research showed that, of the 62 planned rail lines in 15 cities, 45 are subway lines and only six are light rails.

"The blind construction of subways will affect the entire development of these cities," he said.

"Subway operating costs are also very high and whether a project will be an overall benefit is a tough question to answer," said Shen.

It costs only 2 yuan ($0.29) to ride the subway in Beijing, which means the government must spend 1 billion yuan ($146 million) to subsidize operating costs each year, he said.

"If the ticket price is raised, the number of passengers will decrease sharply, which will also lead to profit loss. This is a dilemma," he said. "A successful profit model is necessary."

Beijing's Subway Line 4, which will start operating on September 28, was built and will be jointly operated by Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corp., Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co. Ltd. and Beijing Capital Group till 2039.

Shen said that Hong Kong's subways are the most successful lines in the world to earn profits and their operators have achieved rich experience.

"I hope the Hong Kong company can bring its experience and operational model to the new subway line and finally explore a profitable operational mode for Chinese subways," Shen said.