奇速英语

北京市民与低票价地铁说再见

Beijingers will wave goodbye to low price transportation after the government raised bus and subway fares on Sunday.

The new fares double the current prices on average, but the price hike does not stop commuters who live far from their work from choosing public transport, especially subway.

For Beijingers, using the subway is cheap and punctual but also crowded. During rush hours, passengers are packed so tight that they sometimes only have one foot on the ground.

Xu Hui, who lives in the capital's northern Tiantongyuan but works as an editor in downtown Beijing, has already began calculating the impact of the price hike.

Now, she will pay six yuan or a single 24.2 kilometer trip, resulting in an extra 2,112 yuan annually. Previously, there was a flat 2 yuan rate for single tickets and unlimited transfers.

Under the new fare prices, the minimum price for a subway ride will be 3 yuan, which covers 6 km."I can accept it. Compared with traffic jams on the road, I still prefer the subway," she told Xinhua.

The subway fare will cost 4 yuan if the ride is between 6 and 12 km, 5 yuan for 12 to 22 km and 6 yuan for 22 to 32 km.

Beijing's first subway line opened in 1969. The number of passengers taking the subway hit 3.2 billion last year in Beijing, an increase of 350 percent from 2007."I bought a house far away from the city's center with cheaper price. But now I have to pay a single ticket of seven yuan every day. It's an economic burden for me," a user wrote on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo.