Li Xiangming, deputy director of the Economic and Information Commission of Guangdong Province indicated that the policy of diverting passenger flow would continue to be implemented to cope with the pressure of spring-festival transport. Director Li said that the Pazhou Exhibition Center would continue to function as a contingency passenger shelter.
Given that the original Metro Line 2 has been split into two lines, direct metro lines from the exhibition center to Guangzhou Railway Station will no longer be available. As a result, passengers departing from Pazhou via Line 2 need to change to Line 8 at the Changgang Interchange Station.
A contingency passenger shelter is a place where passengers take a rest before their trains arrive. All shelters are connected to Guangzhou Railway Station by the metro system. When their trains are to arrive at the railway station in one or two hours' time, passengers will depart and travel by metro to reach the railway station. Before this policy was implemented, all passengers were concentrated in the railway station, which sometimes caused disorder.
In 2011, twenty-six contingency passenger shelters will be set up in exhibition centers, plazas, sports centers and schools. The overall holding capacity of these shelters is expected to amount to 722,000 passengers; up by 136,000 passengers over 2010.
To further enlarge the holding capacity, some officials have suggested to the Guangdong Spring Festival Transport Office, that the Aoti Sports Center should be designated as a new contingency passenger shelter. It is expected that this suggestion will be adopted, making the Aoti Sports Center a new passenger shelter in 2011.
