Last week I went for a ride on a commuter train that runs through the suburbs of Kunming. I've been wanting to ride it for ages, ever since I first moved to Kunming. My old apartment was right next to the train tracks. I'd see (or hear) the train go by every day, and always wondered where it went. I did some research at the time, found that it ran from the Western suburbs to the Eastern suburbs, not particularly useful for me or most Kunming residents. I still wanted to ride it, but somehow it never happened.
Fast forward to last week, when GoKunming.com ran an article about the train. GoKunming is a website run by a couple of Americans who've lived in Kunming for years. It's mainly for expats, but has a Chinese version too. In addition to the standard information for expats, its got lots of well-written articles and interviews worthy of a journalistic publication. And here was this train, in a feature of its own. That decided it for me. It was finally time for me to experience it.
I called up Sean and we met at Kunming North Station a few minutes before the 4:20 afternoon train to the Western terminus. The North Station is a massive building I've passed underneath many times, as the main north-south artery Beijing Road passes through a tunnel underneath it. I've also been to the Railway Museum inside, which celebrates the Kunming-Hanoi railway that celebrated its centennial last year. The French built the narrow-gauge line to exploit Yunnan's precious metal resources. At the time, Kunming was more connected to the French empire in Indochina by this sole railroad line than it was to the rest of the Chinese empire to which it belonged. The railway ran intermittently ever since 1911, with disruptions during World War II and the Sino-Vietnamese War. But passenger trains stopped running in 2003 because the route was deemed too prone to landslides. I'm told a couple lone freight trains still ply the route daily.
Anyway, Kunming North Station used to to be the place where you boarded the train to Vietnam. Now all that's left there is this little commuter train. And what a train it is. Four passenger cars. Tickets costing 1.5 yuan (20 cents). It chugs through the city at about 15 mph, crossing dozens of streets in its path. At every street, traffic comes to a standstill waiting for the train to pass. Each intersection is manned by a guard who lowers the crossing guardrail. The train is staffed by at least ten uniformed conductors. And the stations on either end of the line manned by furthermore. Sean and I estimated that there are at least 100 people employed in the operation of this train. And tens of thousands inconvenienced by it every day as it blocks traffic at grade-crossings.
Now here's the fact that will blow your mind. The train only sees on average 160 passengers a day! That's divided into three runs in each direction. In other words, fewer than 30 people ride the train on average at any given time. When we rode it we counted all of 7. The other five were all riding it for the same reason we were - out of curiosity. Indeed, it was an entertaining train ride. Passing through mostly familiar territory in a brand new mode of conveyance was fun. And seeing all the people waiting at the intersections for us to (slowly) pass by was great fun. At the last station, we waited 20 minutes while the engine was turned around, then headed back where we'd come from. I still need to go do the run to the Eastern suburbs sometime soon. All in all, it was definitely worth 40 cents!
The rail right of way will be partly used by one of the six lines of the new subway/light-rail system currently under construction.
Riding the train was like taking a trip back to the golden days of Communist China. A clearly subsidized service that's terribly inefficient by market standards. In an era when even the Chinese communist party pays close attention to supply and demand and the bottom line, how does a train like this keep running? I can only imagine its because of the guanxi (relationships) that must be involved. Whoever has the power in the ministry that controls this train probably gets lots of good will from the jobs the train provides. Keeping the train running, at whatever its cost, must be worth more to him than the political fallout of canceling it.
See pictures here
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