Experiencing thirty years of China's rail and metro development
One factor in ensuing smooth passenger flow has been station design. In the 1990s when passenger numbers were increasing rapidly, people would often have to wait outside in the station concourse until their trains were called. There was simply not enough space inside to accommodate the waiting crowds. Not very pleasant in the rains often experienced, for example, in Guangzhou. Improvements however were appearing in early 1996 with the opening of Beijing West, then the largest station in Asia. Handling up to 400,000 passengers daily it greatly relieved pressure on the 1959 completed Beijing Railway Station. Then China's largest, its passenger waiting rooms were capable of accommodating 14,000 passengers. Similarly, much-enlarged Guangzhou East, opening in the mid-1990s took pressure off the city's main 1974-opened terminal while providing much improved services to Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
