CHINA: Wuxi metro Line 4 was opened for revenue service on December 17, following a formal inauguration by the city’s Mayor, Du Xiaogang, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee.
Designated as the Purple Line on the city’s metro map, the 25·4 km north-south line connects Liutan to Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center, serving 18 stations of which four are interchanges. Connections are provided to Line 1 at Liutan and Civic Center, to Line 2 at Heliekou and Line 3 at Sheng’an.
Line 4 is operated by a fleet of 25 six-car Type B trainsets designed for a maximum speed of 80 km/h. Supplied by CRRC Zhuzhou, the first were delivered in November 2020.
Planning for Line 4 began in October 2015, and the project was authorised by the Jiangsu Provincial Development & Reform Commission in January 2017. Construction began on March 28 of that year. Its opening takes the operational length of the metro network to 112 route-km.
An 8·6 km northern extension of Line 4 adding a further six stations is envisaged in the Wuxi Urban Rail Transit Phase III Construction Plan for 2021-26, which was formally approved by the National Development & Reform Commission on November 8.
- The line is the third new route to be opened as part of the traditional round of schemes commissioned in various Chinese cities in December of each year. The 2021 wave began with an extension of Tianjin Line 5 on December 7, followed by the opening of Line 5 in Nanning on December 16.
