In late September, Beijing Subway announced that it started transporting parcels on its trains, becoming the first city in the country to use its rapid transport network this way. Less than two months later, Wuxi followed suit by providing a similar service with its Metro, calling itself the first city in the Yangtze Delta to do so.
A collaborative effort between China Post, SF Express and Wuxi Metro Corporation, the trial run of the project started on November 8th. Currently, it is limited to Line 3 between Sunan Shuofang Airport (shared between Wuxi and Suzhou) and Wuxi Railway Station. As of now, only documents and small parcels are shipped this way, due to safety and security requirements. They are transported by Metro only during off-peak hours. Specifically assigned personnel will guard the parcels in transit. The parcels will go through two security checks, one pre-check before entering the Metro system, and one at the station, like regular passenger luggage.
More stations and lines are planned to become available for this service in the future. This shipping method will make better use of the transport capacity of the Metro system, at the same time reduce emissions and road traffic. It will not require any modification to the infrastructure or scheduling of the Metro.
Beijing started trialling transporting parcels on Lines 9-Fangshan-Yanfang and Line 4 on the 23rd and 25th of September respectively. Lines 9-Fangshan-Yanfang transports unsold newspapers and Line 4 will also involve SF Express in the operation of the shipping. Line 4 uses double security checks, the same as Wuxi Metro. Meanwhile, the newspapers on Lines 9-Fangshan-Yanfang will be sealed before entering the transit system, and only visual checks of the seals will be performed by Beijing Subway.
In August, Shenzhen Metro signed a contract with SF to use Line 11 for parcel transportation, but the agreement is yet to be implemented.
