End of the road for cut-rate transport

With Beijing about to raise fees for public transportation, experts said that rings an alarm for other cities where low-price public transportation is not sustainable and can lead to severe overcrowding.

Since Beijing adopted low-price public transport services in 2007, many cities, including Shenzhen, Wuxi, Xi'an and Guangzhou, have all considered cutting the prices of their public transport services.

"The capital's price adjustment is a wake-up call for urban authorities that low-rate fares for bus and rail may not be a good solution for the city's traffic jams," said Wang Jiangyan, head of China Sustainable Transportation Center.