What will be the future of highway passenger transport after the closure of Hangzhou South Bus Station?
2024-08-17
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Chao News Client Trainee Reporter Zhu Yifan Correspondent Yan Quansheng
At 24:00 on August 15, Hangzhou South Bus Station was officially closed.
This bus station, which was built in 1988, once became one of the busiest places in Hangzhou. In the days before high-speed rail, there were trains departing for Jinhua, Wenzhou and other areas in southern Zhejiang every ten minutes. During the National Day holiday in 2012, the station sent more than 57,000 passengers on the peak day.
"This station has witnessed the most glorious era of highway passenger transport, and also its decline." Today, the South Station sends a maximum of 7,700 passengers during holidays, which is only 15% of the peak period. But in recent years, stationmaster Chen Xiaohong has gradually discovered the market for long-distance passenger transport.
At the end of the month, the Hangzhou-Wenzhou high-speed railway will be opened to traffic, and the province's "one-hour land traffic circle" will also be completed. At a time when cross-city traffic is getting faster and faster, what competitive advantages does highway passenger transport still have, and how should it move towards the future? On the eve of the station's closure, the reporter tried to find the answer inside the station.
Hangzhou South Bus Station before 2002 Source: Hangzhou Changyun Group
What did the South Bus Station go through from glory to decline?
Two days before the closure, the South Bus Station continued to operate as usual, except that closure notices were posted in prominent locations at the station.
"There are fewer people coming these past two days. Everyone knows that this station will be closed soon, so many people don't come." The security guard at the door told reporters.
Inside the station, the conductor reminded passengers who came to buy tickets: "This place will be closed after the 15th. You have to go to other stations to get on the bus!"
At the same time, the relocation and closure of the entire bus station is also in progress. Chen Xiaohong introduced that nearly 100 long-distance passenger bus services currently at the South Station will be moved to the East Railway Station Bus Station and Jiubao Passenger Transport Center Station: "Currently, some staff have been transferred to other stations in the city, and drivers are also familiarizing themselves with the new routes."
Photo taken by trainee reporter Zhu Yifan at the ticket window at Hangzhou South Bus Station on August 14
In the midst of her busy work, Chen Xiaohong told reporters about the past and present of this bus station.
"36 years ago, the South Bus Station was built at No. 70 Qiutao Road. At that time, long-distance passenger transport was the most popular mode of transportation. There were a lot of trains to Wenzhou, Lishui and Jinhua, especially to Wenzhou, with one train departing every 10 minutes, as frequent as a bus," said Chen Xiaohong.
At that time, there were many mountainous roads in southern Zhejiang, and the railways were mainly ordinary trains. Take Wenzhou as an example. At that time, it took nearly 8 hours for a green train to reach Hangzhou, while some long-distance passenger trains only took 4 hours. Therefore, the faster transportation speed made the passenger bus station the first choice for citizens to travel across cities in those years.
"I remember that during the Spring Festival travel rush in the early 2000s, it was always hard to get a seat in the waiting hall of the South Bus Station. Even the floor was full of people. Moreover, the buses were large ones with more than 40 seats, and every trip was packed." 80-year-old Grandpa Liu's hometown is Tonglu. When he was young, he worked in the urban area of Hangzhou, and long-distance buses became his only way to go home, a habit that has continued into his retirement life today.
The once bustling Hangzhou South Bus Station Source: Hangzhou Changyun Group
However, in his memory, such crowded scenes have rarely been seen since 2013. On July 1 of that year, Hangzhou East Railway Station was officially put into operation. On the same day, the Ningbo-Hangzhou High-speed Railway and the Hangzhou-Ningbo High-speed Railway were officially opened. Since then, the Hangzhou-Changsha High-speed Railway, Jinliwen High-speed Railway, and Shanghai-Kunming High-speed Railway have been opened to traffic one after another. Several major cities in southern Zhejiang have entered the high-speed rail era within three years.
"2013 was a watershed year. The passenger flow at the South Bus Station began to decline after that year. The drop was most obvious in the direction of Wenzhou. Around 2015, all Wenzhou lines were basically stopped." Chen Xiaohong told the story while counting the years.
In Chen Xiaohong's view, facing the increasingly fast travel speed, the shrinking share of long-distance passenger transport is an indisputable fact. However, he also told reporters that these flexible buses still have their own blue ocean.
With so many choices available, who still takes long-distance buses?
In the waiting hall of the South Bus Station, the smell of "farewell" of the impending closure was not obvious. Looking around, dozens of passengers with large and small bags were waiting for the departure of the bus, and the grilled sausages in the canteen were still steaming hot. The scene was not as deserted as the reporter imagined, and there were even many elderly people with acupuncture needles on their heads rushing to catch the bus.
"During this period, the better service is to Pujiang, which can carry more than 100 passengers a day." A ticket inspector at the station told reporters.
This destination was once a national trunk railway. However, since 2007, when the last section of the old Zhejiang-Jiangxi railway track was sent to a special train for the overhaul team to remove the tracks, the old railway in Pujiang on the Zhejiang-Jiangxi (Shanghai-Kunming) line has been “retired”. Since then, Pujiang residents can only go to nearby Yiwu by train or high-speed rail.
"There have been no trains in our county for a long time, and it is inconvenient to get to Yiwu Station. It takes more than an hour to take the bus. So the passenger station in Pujiang has always been very busy." Passenger Xiao Chen told reporters.
Photo taken by trainee reporter Zhu Yifan at the ticket gate of Hangzhou South Bus Station on August 14
In addition to Pujiang, which has no high-speed rail, the ticket inspector also listed other areas with higher departure frequencies for reporters, namely Tonglu, Zhuji, Jiande... However, these destinations have long been covered by high-speed rail, so why do people still choose to take long-distance buses?
After some communication between the reporter and the passengers, it was discovered that in the terminal transportation of "door-to-door" traffic, the passenger stations that are deeply involved in the "details" of various places have unique advantages.
"To get from my home to Tonglu High-speed Railway Station, I have to transfer to two buses, which takes at least half an hour. I also have to arrive at the station half an hour in advance to wait for the bus, so I have to leave home an hour in advance. But if I take a bus right at my doorstep, I only need to leave home 10 minutes in advance and arrive in Hangzhou in an hour!" Ms. Zhang, 40, is a frequent visitor to the South Bus Station. She said that long-distance buses are the best choice for traveling between the two places, both in terms of time and economy.
Chen Xiaohong made a statistics, and found that in the short distance of 100 kilometers or 150 kilometers, the time advantage of highway passenger transport is not obvious compared with train and highway passenger transport. This is also the main reason why some short-distance passenger transport routes are popular.
As time goes by, what kind of future will highway passenger transport head towards?
We have found our own competitive advantages and transformation is underway.
After the closure of the South Bus Station, there are four large passenger stations left in Hangzhou: the Passenger Transport Center, the West Bus Station, the North Bus Station, and the East Railway Station. As the operator of these stations, Hangzhou Changyun Group has never stopped seeking innovation and change.
On May 17 this year, Hangzhou Changyun Group and Didi jointly launched the "Intercity Bus", opening routes from Hangzhou to Tonglu and Jiande for only 9.9 yuan. You don't even have to go to the station, you can just choose the nearest stop to get on the bus. After more than half a month of operation, the "Intercity Bus" from Hangzhou to Tonglu and Hangzhou to Jiande has carried more than 2,300 passengers, exceeding expectations.
In addition, when you click into the "Changyun with you" applet, you will find many customized routes on the homepage. From point-to-point pick-up and drop-off, to medical lines that go directly to hospitals, to this year's concert through buses that facilitate fans to go to nearby cities to watch concerts... More and more "customized" routes reflect that these passenger bus stations are breaking the boundaries of "stations", extending the end of the route to a wider range, and truly transporting passengers "door to door".
Hangzhou South Bus Station before closure Source: Hangzhou Changyun Group
Looking beyond Hangzhou, the number of third-level and above passenger stations in the province has been decreasing since 2016. In 2016, there were 204 third-level and above passenger stations in Zhejiang Province, which dropped to 113 in 2023, a decrease of 44.6% from 2016.
"The travel mode chosen by passengers mainly depends on the travel cost, including economic cost and time cost. Now that there are more options, road passenger transport will definitely give up some of its share to aviation and high-speed rail," said Wu Weiqiang, professor of public administration at Zhejiang University of Technology.
"A reduction in market share does not mean a loss of demand for road passenger transport." In Wu Weiqiang's view, if long-distance bus stations want to transform, they not only need to enhance their own advantages in "terminal docking", change the original method of concentrated passenger boarding at bus stations, and adopt a dispersed multi-point passenger boarding method, but also need to improve the service quality within the station to provide passengers with a more comfortable riding experience.
On social media, some netizens found that the day after the closure of the South Bus Station was announced, the news of the trial operation of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou Railway was widely reported by the media. He sighed: "Sure enough, the times move forward without warning. Hangzhou South Bus Station was originally the first stop for Wenzhou people to enter Hangzhou."
In response to such a sigh, Chen Xiaohong smiled and said: "Times are changing, and our development direction is also changing. The future is still long, so we will wait and see."
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