Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    TWO sets of six-carriage trains will be put into use on Longhua Line before the 2014 Spring Festival in response to riders’ complaints about overcrowding, the line’s operator said.

    HKMTR Shenzhen Co. said it has begun work to expand the line’s four-carriage trains to six carriages to increase capacity and reduce crowds. The first six-carriage train has been completed at a factory in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, and will be transported to Shenzhen for a test in December, the company said in a news release yesterday.

    After the Spring Festival, two more sets of trains will be put into use every month to gradually increase the line’s capacity.

    Company representatives said the transition from four carriages to six involves complicated engineering related to the door, power, signal and communication systems.

    The company plans to renovate 112 carriages on 28 trains and build 56 carriages. It began renovating the sliding doors at the Minle and Lianhua North Metro stations in May, and completed the project in September.

    Passengers have criticized Longhua Line for its nearly constant crowds since the line opened in June 2011.

    During rush hours, Longhua Line trains can be more crowded than other trains are during the annual Spring Festival travel peak. Many passengers have attributed the crowding to insufficient trains or carriages on the line. There are only four carriages per train on Longhua Line compared to six carriages per train on Luobao, Huanzhong, Longgang and Shekou lines.

    The crowds put HKMTR Shenzhen under fire for poor management and inaccurate estimates of passenger traffic. The operator sometimes restricts passenger numbers to alleviate congestion.

    Soon after the line opened, HKMTR Shenzhen made a public promise that it would add two more carriages to each train before the end of 2014.