Policy Options of Promoting Integrated Urban and Suburban Passenger Transport Networks

The CCP Central Committee Decision on Several Issues Related to Promoting Reform and Development for Suburban Areas, passed by the 17th National CCP Congress, stated that China has entered a new and dynamic era in which the development of agriculture is driven by industrial advancement, that is to say suburban areas are led by urban areas, intertwining the two and forcing an increasingly greater need for the integration of urban and suburban social economic development in tandem. During this process, it is important to further unify urban and suburban social economic development, and promote equitable public services to all individuals. In regards to the development of public service and general living quality in suburban areas, road construction should be enhanced in order to ensure the use of asphalt concrete roads leading to villages and towns by the end of the 11th Five-year Plan. Coupled with this form of road development, public transport services connecting the suburban areas to urban ones will be monumental in the establishment of an integrated, national passenger transport network. The development of urban and suburban passenger transport has been separated for a long time, noted particularly by deficient coordination. More and more conflicts arise from the development of both areas separately. Thus accomplishing the integration of urban and suburban passenger transport is an effective way to settle these conflicts. It complies with the strategy of a centralized government for the transport industry, and is a significant move toward promoting the construction of the New Socialist Countryside. The central government has determined to form the new Ministry of Transport in order to dedicate planning, construction and administration of passenger and freight transport in both urban and suburban areas in March, 2008. The Leading Party Members' Team of MOT brought out the initiatives on integrating urban and suburban public transport resources in October, 2008. It aims to achieve a speedy, safe, and streamlined green passenger transport network, improve public transport service levels, ensure an efficient movement of production elements between urban and suburban areas through enhanced coordination, and benefit all individuals by such transport development.