Provide more people with better transport

Opinion / Li Xing

 Provide more people with better transport
By Li Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-15 06:25

With eight arms, an octopus reaches out for and sucks up its prey at will.

Although I have only seen a few at ocean parks, I came to love its
extended meaning after I travelled in Hong Kong early this year with my
husband and daughter.

The Hong Kong Octopus cards we purchased at the MTR (subway) customer
service centre at Tsim Sha Tsui enabled us to get on and off any of the
region's public transport vehicles at will, from the subway, bus, ferry
and tram to train.

Moreover, we easily bought Danish pastries and cups of coffee at a
Starbucks and a few bars of chocolate and magazines at a 7-Eleven store
with the cards.

The convenience the Octopus card offers in a way demonstrates the
thoughtfulness and efficiency with which the Hong Kong government manages
its public transportation.

Meanwhile, the ongoing expansion of the local smart card alliance
indicates the willingness of the public transport providers and
businesses to join hands to make the region's well-known service
environment even better.

At that time, we wondered why such a smart public transit card was not
available in Beijing.

Only recently, as a public hearing in relation to IC cards is scheduled
for next week, have I realized I have been ignorant of a similar scheme
in Beijing, in the form of the IC cards.

I do have excuses for my ignorance, even though the IC card was
introduced two years ago. It links only some buses, the subway and some
taxis in Beijing.

One Saturday afternoon when I had to join more than 100 people in long
queues at the Xidan subway ticketing office, I didn't spot an
announcement or a service counter, or a kiosk, encouraging people to buy
an IC card.

Some 16 million people make Beijing their permanent or temporary home. By
October this year, some 3 million tourists from overseas visited Beijing.
However, local media reported that only some 210,000 IC cards had been
sold by the end of September this year, with 41,000 daily transactions on
average.

By comparison, permanent residents in Hong Kong number around 6.5
million, and some 21 million people from outside visited Hong Kong last
year alone. Since its inception in 1997, some 9 million Octopus cards and
150,000 smart watches are said to have been issued, an average of
1,125,000 cards a year.

According to the local Smart Card Alliance, over 7 million transactions
are recorded on a daily basis, for a daily transaction value of over
HK$50 million (US$6.5 million), of which 75 per cent are related to
public transportation.

The volume alone shows the vigour of local public transportation in Hong
Kong.

However, the spread of IC cards, which allow all public transport
providers to join, has been hampered in part by Beijing's decades-old
system of monthly bus passes. The scheduled public hearing will discuss
whether the city should replace the monthly passes with the IC cards.

I myself once was proud of having such a monthly pass that got me around
Beijing by buses or subway by paying 10 yuan (US$1.20) a month. But that
was more than 20 years ago, when few looked at things in terms of gains
and losses.

But I am now all for replacing the old scheme with the more convenient IC
cards.

The expansion of a unified automatic fare collection system in Beijing is
expected to make it easier for commuters as well as tourists to travel in
Beijing.

Beijing must do it, because it is estimated that about 1 million people
from across the country and overseas will converge here during the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The old scheme has many problems. Today about 1.3 million, or less than
10 per cent of the residents in Beijing, benefit from the old scheme.

Only 8,000 buses, or about 45 per cent of the surface transportation,
accept monthly passes, in order to limit the losses the services sustain
from the old scheme.

Meanwhile, only 200,000 monthly passes are issued for the subway, while
the number of passengers is more than 1.1 million a day.

An old scheme enjoyed by only a small percentage of people surely should
be replaced.

While it may not be difficult to swap the old passes for the new IC
cards, it will surely test the determination and governance of the
municipal government to make it link all public transportation service
providers and even retail businesses for the benefit of the general
public.

Above all, the IC scheme constitutes a part of Beijing's promise to make
the Olympics shine with convenience and good services. How will it fulfil
it? The world is watching.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/15/2005 page4)

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