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Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province in Northwest China, 1200 km southwest of Beijing and 600 km north of Chengdu; with some 3 million inhabitants in the urban area.

- 2-line metro network under construction:

26.8 km with 20 stations

23 June 2019: Chenguanying - Donggang (26.8 km)
28 Sept 2020: Gansu Provincial Government station

Stage 1: 9.1 km with 9 stations

29 June 2023: Dongfanghong Square - Yanbai Bridge

Lanzhou Metro (Official Site)

Lanzhou Metro at Wikipedia

In July 2019, Craig Moore reports from Lanzhou:

Although culturally considered to be a north-western city, Lanzhou is located in the centre of the Chinese landmass, situated on flatlands between the high steppe to the north and south. Historically, Lanzhou’s strategic location rendered it a major centre of the Silk Road, and today the city still maintains a significant position as a road and rail hub with trains from the megacities of the east passing through Lanzhou on their way to remoter areas of the west - you get a sense of where you are in the landmass when station departure boards exhibit ‘Lhasa’ and Urumqi. This location has created a diverse population with sizeable Central Asian, Mongol, Tibetan, Hui, Dongxiang, and Tu communities.

Geographic and infrastructural barriers have confined Lanzhou’s urban development along a relatively narrow belt of land, bounded by the rail line in the south and the Huang (Yellow) River to the north, making the city long and thin, rather than concentric, with the centre (Chengguan District) in the more bulbous eastern area where the Huang arcs to the north. Lanzhou Metro Line 1 follows this urban pattern and is a 25.4km fully underground line, hosting 20 stations. The high density, mixed land use patterns of Chinese cities are ideal for metro development and in Lanzhou, this is further enhanced as the line runs directly under the main commercial east-west axis and is seen as a catalyst for new high tech/commercial development along its length. It runs from Donggang in the east to Chenguanying in the west, via the northern sections of the older city centre (Wulipu-Dongfanghong Sq), the modern commercial districts around Xizhanshizi, and the transport hub of West Station. The line then arcs north running below the Huang twice (with long station gaps on these sections) before Chenguanying. The journey takes 46mins.

Officially opened in late June 2019, debugging of the line began at the very end of 2018, with non-load testing running from March to early June 2019. 13000 test runs brought a punctuality rate of 99.9%; and virtually perfect signalling, platform screen door, power supply and vehicle system rates, enabling the Lanzhou Metro to meet rigourous national standard requirements. This shows in operations, where the 8min base headway (5min peak) is kept meticulously (0630-2200 operating times).

There is directional signage to stations along the streets and entrances with differing styles. These offer stair/escalator access to the mezzanine (note that Chenguanying mezzanine has direct street access with the tracks one level below – the line being shallow at this end). Banks of ticket machines provide card based tickets (distance based 2-6 Yuan). Security scanning and customer offices (no hard copy information) are located at the ends of the mezzanines and barriers are located at the ends and sides of the space, along with station information/vicinity boards. Some stations in the east have attractive wall art at this level. Stairs, escalators and lifts provide access to the platforms which are in island form except Dongfanghong Square. This station has side platforms to facilitate integration to Line 2, which is currently under construction. The platforms have full screens and strip map, toilets, seating, vertical line maps and RTI. The tone of the stations overall is bright with excellent wayfinding, good lighting, white walls and pillars with light blue trim. The slatted ceilings have diverse designs in these colours and the crest of the pillars have different artistic blue designs at each station (Dongfanghong Sq is again unique as this station has the burnt orange trim of Line 2 – for which it will be the terminus). The trim, strip maps etc are not a solid colour but made up of small swirls which is lovely and quite unique. Against the trend in China, stations here do not have large calligraphic station names on side walls, only small plates.

CRRC trains operate in six car sets. These have a white exterior with band below the heavily tinted windows. The band runs around the front under the black front window area. The band is colour coded by line. Whilst most of the stock is for Line 1 (blue band), there are also some Line 2 trains running and these have orange band. The interiors are lovely and fresh given their young age. Side seating and grab bars are 2 tone blue/2 tone orange and there is a dynamic strip above the doors. This is in Chinese only, but there is audio in English as well as Mandarin. This is very clear (thankfully) and also offers behaviour advice for Lanzhou’s passengers who are new to Metrodom. The ride is very quiet and incredibly smooth, even on the long stretches of running under the river.

This is a simple metro, whose construction and operation has been really well executed. Given the alignment, it is a very well used line, being busy all along the route - and the locals are rightly proud of their new acquisition. With the occasional exception, China constantly ‘raises the bar’ in terms of Metro development. In terms of operations, infrastructure and design the country progresses with endeavour, effectiveness and excellence - Lanzhou is the embodiment of this.

In addition to the Metro, there are train services from Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport (70km north-west of Lanzhou) to the city centre. The line is underground at the airport but offers great views entering the city in the west. The journey takes 35-45mins and costs 17-28RMB dependent on service type (the airport bus is 30RMB). There are approximately 10/12 services per day in each direction but there are irregular headways and sometimes 90min gaps in services.