THE Shenzhen Metro Co. has launched a project to renovate 82 lavatories on Metro Line 1, 2, 3 and 5 to improve the environment and facilities in these toilets, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Thursday.

A survey report released by the city’s rail transit construction office Wednesday showed that passengers were generally satisfied with the city’s subway service last year, especially in seven aspects, such as the punctuality of subway trains, work efficiency of Metro station staff and precautions taken at Metro stations to ensure security.

Many passengers spoke highly of the themed carriages on subway trains and the volunteers who offered help to passengers in the Metro stations.

However, many passengers were not satisfied with the toilets in Metro stations, mainly because there were not enough toilets and most of them had a poor environment.

According to the report, the Shenzhen Metro Co. has launched the project to renovate 82 toilets on Metro Line 1, 2, 3 and 5, while baby care rooms will be added in these toilets.

The Metro group will also take measures to smooth the flow of passengers at Metro stations and improve the security check efficiency by optimizing the allocation of security check equipment.

The MTR Corp. (Shenzhen) Ltd., operator of Metro Line 4 in Shenzhen, said the renovation of the sewage disposal facilities for the lavatories in Metro stations will be completed this year and the lavatories will have the facilities upgraded next year.

Currently, there are eight Metro lines — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 — in service in Shenzhen, with an overall operating distance of 285 kilometers. As many as 4.53 million passengers took the subway in Shenzhen per day last year. The number of subway passengers accounted for 47 percent of the number of passengers on Shenzhen’s public transport last year.

(Zhang Yang)