Line 1 (Guangzhou Metro)

Planning

Guangzhou began investigating a metro in the 1960s. In August 1960, work started with a series of 6 boreholes across Guangzhou to assess ground conditions. A report was produced, however no further progress was made following an economic downturn.^[5]

In 1965, with the Vietnam War escalating, it was decided to build a tunnel, initially as an air raid shelter, but with provision to run trains through it once the war was over. To maintain secrecy, the project was called 九号工程 (Project No. 9), named for the nine strokes in the characters for underground (地下). In the end, due to the lack of resources and rushed construction, the tunnel was never suitable for trains and the project was abandoned after the war. In the decades after, there were another 5 proposals for a metro, however none of these proceeded for various reasons.^[5][6]

By the 1990s, the growing population and traffic congestion in Guangzhou had renewed interest in a metro. The Guangzhou Municipal Government committed to building Line 1 in May 1991 and a year later, the Guangzhou Mass Transit Railway Corporation (now Guangzhou Metro Corporation) was formed. In March 1993, Line 1 received planning approval.^[6]

As this was only the fourth metro system in China, Guangzhou Metro looked overseas for expertise. Initially, there were talks with the France, however these were ultimately unsuccessful. In November 1993, Germany sent a delegation to China to negotiate a series of contracts, including a US$416m contract to build Line 1, which they ultimately won.^[5][7]

Construction

Work started on 28 December 1994.^[5] The main structure of Tiyu Xilu station was the first to be completed on 18 April 1997.^[8] On 28 June 1997, the line between Xilang and Huangsha was opened to passengers. At this time the line was in "sightseeing operation", operating with much lower frequencies and a flat fare of ¥5.^[9]

The largest station, Gongyuanqian, was completed on 20 August the same year and all tunnel boring was completed on 3 October. Train testing began on 30 September the following year, and all construction work had been completed by 28 December. From 16 February - 2 March 1999, the full line opened for "sightseeing operation" again. Following more testing, the line was officially opened on 28 June 1999.^[8] The total investment was 12.2616 billion yuan with an average cost per kilometer of 662.9 million yuan.^[10]

Upgrades

In 2004, station ventilation and electrical systems started to be updated and platforms strengthened in preparation for retrofitting of platform screen doors in all stations, one of the first PSD retrofit projects in Mainland China.^[11] By 2009, all stations on Line 1 were retrofitted with PSDs.^[12]

Since Line 1 began operation, there have been several incidents of service disruptions due to overhead catenary cable breakages.^[13] During that period, Guangzhou Metro experimented rigid catenary installations between Kengkou and Huadiwan stations.^[14] Rigid catenary was promoted on all newer lines using overhead electric traction such as Line 2. Beginning in 2007, Guangzhou Metro began converting Line 1's overhead into rigid catenary without shutting down regular service. Instead, trains ran at a speed of 30 km/h (19 mph) when passing through the temporary transition sections.^[15][16][17]

In 2011, Line 1 carried out renovation work on the walls of stations along the entire line, removing the original wall tiles and replacing them with gray tiles. Chen Yihua, a middle school student from Guangzhou No. 16 Middle School, attracted media attention by protesting the rationale behind the renovation, arguing that the new uniform tiles destroyed the unique decoration and design features of each Line 1 station. In the end, the project was suspended with only some stations renovated. The rest of the stations remained as is temporarily.^[18][19] In 2017, the platforms of Line 1's Guangzhou East Railway Station began to be renovated, having its wall tiles and false ceiling decorations replaced. However, the replaced tiles and decorations were similar in color to the original. Subsequently, the rest of the underground stations also began to have wall tiles replaced and decorations hung up accordingly, completing the remaining station renovations using designs as close to the original style as possible.

In June 2016, Guangzhou Metro began to study how to extend the service life of A1 trains, which were introduced in 1997.^[20][21] The A1s were the rolling stock used during the opening of Line 1 and are the oldest in the Guangzhou Metro. The first A1 train started the refurbishment process between 2019–2020.^[22] The refurbished trains feature rebuilt interiors, lighting and electrical systems as well as LCD passenger information screens.^[23] The A3 trains were also updated with their dot-matrix route maps replaced by full color LCD passenger information screens.

In order to ensure the continuation of reliable daily operations, there were plans to upgrade the existing aging signaling system of Line 1. According to the tender information, it will be upgraded to a newer version of the Siemens signaling system.^[24] In February 2022, Guangzhou Metro decided to use the holidays in March and April to upgrade the catenary, signaling system and other equipment of Line 1. During the 16-day upgrade and renovation period, the two-way traffic of Line 1 was closed 1.5 hours earlier.^[25]