Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

THE bus traffic to the city’s eastern tourist attractions, including Dameisha and Dapeng, has been greatly improved thanks to the opening of a bus lane from Luosha Road to the Dameisha Tollgate section of Huishen Coastal Expressway.

The bus lane started banning eastbound vehicles except buses between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. during holidays and weekends Sunday, the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival. Over the past three days, police have punished more than 5,000 drivers for illegally occupying the bus lane.

Statistics from Shenzhen East Bus Group showed buses running on the bus lane during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday saved 20 to 40 minutes compared with their running times during the May Day holiday.

The buses on route 387 saved about 21 minutes. On May 1, it took 98 minutes for a bus to run from Shenzhen Railway Station to Xiaomeisha. But on Sunday, the first day the bus lane was introduced, the trip took 77 minutes.

The trip for 380A from Kengzi, Pingshan to Xiaomeisha was reduced by 29 minutes to 148 minutes.

Other bus routes such as 380B, E11 and 16 holiday bus routes including two to Xiaomeisha, five to Dapeng and nine to OCT East, saved around 30 minutes on average compared with the times on the routes during the May Day holiday, according to data released by Shenzhen traffic police bureau.

Expressways in the city have seen surges in the flows of returning vehicles since noon yesterday, the last day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

The vehicles entering downtown Shenzhen started to queue up at Dameisha Tollgate Square of Shenzhen-Yantian No. 2 Passage starting at 9 a.m. yesterday, according to the Shenzhen traffic police intelligent commanding center.

“As many holidaymakers are planning to spend the last day of the festival at home, some have returned home early. This caused congestion at the Dameisha Tollgate. The congestion had extended to the Egongji Tunnel by around 11:30 a.m. yesterday,” Xu Ming, an officer on duty at the intelligent commanding center, said yesterday.

Police have been sending motorcycle teams to patrol and guide traffic in the east of the city since 3 p.m. yesterday.

Xu reminded drivers returning to Shenzhen from Shantou and Huizhou not to choose the eastern coastal expressway as the heavy traffic at Dameisha Tollgate Square could last until midnight.

Shenzhen North Railway Station operated 234 pairs of trains yesterday, helping 136,000 travelers return to the city by 6 p.m. yesterday.

“Most of the travelers were short-trip travelers returning from Changsha, Wuhan and Chaoshan,” said Li Guilan, on-duty chief of Shenzhen North Railway Station.

The city’s air, rail and long-distance bus services handled 2.37 million travelers during the three-day holiday, an increase of 9.11 percent over the same period last year, statistics from Shenzhen transport commission showed.