Beijing Bus

Beijing Bus No. 1 on Chang'an Avenue at Tiananmen Square. The vehicle is produced by Huanghai Bus.

Beijing Bus No. 689, a CNG powered Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd vehicle.

Public bus service in Beijing is the among the most extensive, widely used and affordable form of public transportation in urban and suburban districts of the city. In 2012, the city's primary public bus operator, the state-owned Beijing Public Transport Holdings, Ltd., operated 996 bus routes and 21,839 buses, which logged 1.731 billion revenue kilometers and delivered 5 billion rides.^[1] The Beijing Xianglong Bus Co., Ltd., an independent operator, provided service on two dozen "Yuntong" (运通) bus routes.^[2] Bus fares begin at RMB(¥)1.00 and are subject to 60% discount when purchased with the mass transit IC card, Yikatong, which effectively lowers the cost of most bus rides in the city center to ¥Y0.40.

Basic Information

Fares

Paper tickets sold on buses with ticket clerks.

Each Beijing bus route is subject to either a flat rate or a distance-based variable rate fare schedule.

• Bus routes with the fixed-rate schedule charge a cash fare of RMB(¥)1.00 per trip.^[3]
• Bus routes with the variable rate schedule charge a cash fare of either:
  • ¥1.00 for the first 12 km and ¥0.50 per every 5 kilometers thereafter or
  • ¥2.00 for the first 10 km and ¥1.00 for every 5 kilometers thereafter (on bus routes with numbers greater than 800).^[3]

All buses on routes with the variable rate fare and some routes with the flat rate fare have a ticket clerk onboard to sell paper tickets and give exact change for ticket purchases. The ticket clerks will ask riders deboarding the bus to show the paper ticket they had purchased, their bus pass or swipe their discount card. On flat fare bus routes designated as having no ticket clerks (无人售票), riders must pay exact fare of ¥1.00 in cash, show the driver their bus pass, or swipe a discount card upon boarding the bus.

Riders carrying bulky luggage that take up the space of another passenger will have to purchase a second bus fare.^[4] A child below the height of 1.2m rides for free when accompanied by a paying rider.^[4] Bearers of Retired Cadres' Honorary Certificates and blind individuals can also ride public buses for free.^[5]

Discount cards

Riders using the Yikatong card enjoy 60% off the standard cash bus fare.

Riders paying with the Yikatong metrocard enjoy 60% discount off of the cash fare.^[3] Hence, with a Yikatong card, the flat fare becomes ¥0.40 per ride. Riders with the student metro card enjoy 80% discount off the cash fare.^[3] On fixed-rate bus routes, riders with discount cards swipe only once, upon boarding the bus. On variable rate bus routes, riders must swipe twice, both on boarding and deboarding the bus, so the trip distance can be calculated.

Until the introduction of the Yikatong metrocard in 2006, Beijing Bus Passes were a popular choice for discounted bus fare. Bus passes are available for three days (¥10 for a maximum of 18 rides), seven days (¥20 for 42 rides), 15 days (¥40 for 90 rides).^[3] The Yikatong has no expiration date and has a lower per ride cost. The Yikatong card can be purchased or have value added at any Beijing Subway station or at any of 89 bus stops around the city.^[6]

Hours

Beijing bus route sign showing the bus route number (BRT No. 1), name of the stop, hours of service, fare schedule, and stops along route.

Service on most bus lines begin between 5:00 and 6:00 and end between 20:00 and 23:00. The 200-series night bus lines begin service at or after 23:00 and run until about 5:00.

Bus stops

Bus stops are marked with route signs that indicate the route number, hours of operation, fare schedule and each stop on the route. Bus route signs are only in Chinese.

Boarding protocol

On buses with two doors, the front door is used for entry and the back door for deboarding. On articulated buses with three doors, the middle door is used for entry and the front and rear doors for deboarding.

Routes

BPT's buses use the following route number scheme and fare schedule. On 1 January 2007, bus fares were significantly reduced.

Beijing Trolleybus No. 103

Other character designations in line numbers:

• Suffix 快 (kuài), which means "fast", indicates express service. For example, Bus No. 104 is a trolleybus. Bus No. 104快 is an express bus that follows the same route but makes fewer stops.
• Suffix 支 (zhī), meaning "branch", indicates a branch route.
• Prefix 临 (lín), meaning "temporary", indicates a temporary route.
• Prefixes 内 (nėi), meaning "inner", and 外 (wài) meaning "outer" refer to the direction of loop route buses. Inner loop buses run in a clock-wise direction. Outer loop buses run in a counterclockwise direction.

Bus Route Enquiry Service

The BPT provides enquiry services via both its official website http://www.bjbus.com and a helpline: +86-10-96166.

Free Wi-Fi service

As of 17 August 2013, free wi-fi service is available on 5,823 buses on 248 bus routes, mostly inside the Third Ring Road.^[7]

History

Beijing bus model used in the 1980s and 1990s.

Public bus service in Beijing dates to 1921 when the Beiyang Government established a trolley company in the city.^[8] Tram service began in the city in 1924.^[8] The first bus route in Beijing was launched in 1925 when the Beiping Bus Preparatory Committee acquired 30 buses for the city.^[8] In 1947, the Beiping Municipal Bus Company was established with 133 buses, but the company shut down in August 1949 during the Chinese Civil War with 79 broken down buses and only five working buses.^[8]

In January 1949, after the capture of Beiping by the People's Liberation Army in the Beiping-Tianjin Campaign, there were only 103 trams and 61 buses in the city, which delivered 28.85 million trips that year.^[8] By 1956, there were 27 bus and tram bus routes, totaling 357 km (222 mi) in length which delivered 235 million trips.^[8] In 1958, the first long-distance bus company was established in the city with 114 vehicles, 54 routes and 9.69 million rides delivered.^[8] From 1956 to 1966, trolleybuses gradually replaced trams in the city and the number of bus lines grew from 27 to 56 and the length routes reached 157 km (98 mi).^[8]

Double-Decker No. 特8 buses (model Jinghua BK61265) at Hangtianqiao West in 2011

In the 1980s to the mid-1990s, the capacity of bus service in Beijing grew slowly.^[8] From 1984 to the end of 1995, the number of bus routes grew from 101 to 246, the number of vehicles increased by 558 or 16.6% to 3,927, and the number of rides rose by 1.06 billion to 3.11 billion, an increase of 293%.^[8] In 1990, the first double-decker special bus line entered service, which increased to five lines by 1995.^[8] In 1999, the first compressed natural gas buses were introduced to the bus fleet. By the end of 2000, the city had 5,923 natural gas powered buses in operation, the most in the world.^[8] Also in the 1999, the 24-hour bus information hotline 96166 was introduced to help riders plan bus trips.^[8]

The electric bus fleet in service during the 2008 Olympics.

During the 2001 Summer University Games held in Beijing, the Beijing Bus Transit service provided free shuttle service, delivering 731,777 trips.^[8] The first electric buses entered service in September 2003.^[9] In 2005, the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line entered operation.^[8] In 2006, the city adopted a new bus fare scheme, fixing the flat-fare rate to Y1.00 and giving 60% discount to Yikatong riders and 80% discount to student card holders.^[8] Also in 2006, the first hydrogen powered bus entered service.^[8] In 2007, after the introduction of the reduced fare scheme, the number of rides increased by 20% to 4.097 billion.^[8] On 31 July 2008, three more BRT lines entered operation.^[8]

Free Wi-Fi service on city buses was initiated in 2013.^[7]

Future concepts

Hydrogen fuel-cell bus

Hydrogen-powered fuel-cell buses began operating in Beijing on an experimental basis in 2006.^[10] Three fuel cell buses, made by Daimler in Germany and purchased with a grant from the U.N. Development Programme, plied a 18.2-km route from the North Gate of the Summer Palace to Wudaokou.^[10] They were the first fuel cell buses to enter operation in China.^[10] The technology has not gained broader use in the city because air pollution reduced the efficiency and operating life of fuel cells.^[11]

Straddling bus

The Beijing public transit authorities experimented with a new type of public transport vehicle called the 3D Express Coach, also known as the straddling bus. The first straddling bus was expected to begin trial operation in Mentougou District in late 2010.^[12]

See also

• Beijing Subway
• Beijing Airport Bus

Notes

a. ^ In November 2011, bus routes numbered in the 800s were re-numbered to make way for a reorganization of the 800 route buses into long-distance buses, and the preexisting 8xx bus routes were renamed as follows: 800内外 to 特12内外; 801 to 601; 802 to 99; 808 to 608; 810 to 609; 814 to 614; 823 to 623; 826 to 626; 836 to 617; 846 to 619; 849 to 620; and 852 to 621.^[13]

References

External links

• 8864.cn bus route and schedule guide
• Official Website of Beijing Public Transport Holdings, Ltd.
• Official Website of Beijing Xianglong Bus Company Ltd.