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Communities fight over subway line
By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-24 07:50
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Two of the city's largest residential communities are fighting online over plans for subway line 14.
Residents of Tiantongyuan community, outside the north fifth ring, are proposing a 10 km extension of the line to add another 10 subway stations and relieve congestion at Tiantongyuan north station, the north terminal of line 5.
However, residents of Wangjing community on the southeast of Tiantongyuan, criticized the proposal by saying there are too many people living in the Tiantongyuan area. They are afraid the subways will become overcrowded.
Sima Lingxiao, a resident who has lived in Tiantongyuan for five years, said they needed more subway lines to support the traveling demands of the area's 400,000 residents.
"The traffic in the morning is horrible. Not a single car can move at peak time. It's like a big parking lot. The only way you can arrive to work place on time is by subway," Sima said yesterday.
Cao Zutao, another resident who has lived there for four years, echoed the complaint.
"In the morning, people can get themselves into subway carriages at Tiantongyuan north, but after that, new arrivals will need a push from subway employees," Cao said.
Cao believes line 5 had helped most residents since opening in late 2007, but he added that he has been a witness to increasing pressure put on the station as a result of an influx of residents in the area.
Residents of Wangjing have their own worries about the traffic pressure in Tiantongyuan.
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Hou said she has been looking forward to the subway line for a long time.
So far, more than 350 residents of Tiantongyuan have written posts in an Internet forum, saying they support the extension of subway line.
Fourteen communities in the area plan to send a signed petition to the municipal commission of urban planning to ask for the extension.
But around 300 other people have expressed anger against the proposal in an Internet forum created by Wangjing community.
Comment from the commission was not available yesterday.
