From 2nd August until 8th August citizens get a free taster of the new tramline. Passengers can enjoy a ride from the Olympic Stadium (East) to Jiangshan Dajie, the stop for the Youth Olympic village or vice versa.
The service runs from Olympic Stadium (East) between 8am and 6pm and from Jiangshan Dajie between 8.30am and 6.30pm, departing every 30 to 40 minutes. On the approximately 20 minute ride the tram strolls past the Youth Olympic Cultural Center, the Fairmont hotel and of course the Olympic Stadium, providing the comfort of the Nanjing Metro overground, which makes for an enjoyable trip of Nanjing’s most recent architectural accomplishments.
If you decide to jump on the bandwagon, be aware that according to the official statement, ID checks can be carried out at any point in time; although none was witnessed on this occasion and one has the slight suspicion that this announcement is more a formality than a fact.
With the tram taking lengthy breaks between runs, this also offers passengers an opportunity to step out and kick into “model mode” for a full blown photo session beside, in front of but hopefully not under the tram carriage.
On the basis of the Nanjing Metro; the two are so similar one can in fact hardly tell the difference if it were not for all the natural sunlight and the buildings flitting by outside; there have been a number of upgrades. Most attention-grabbing are undoubtedly the tram staff, surprisingly pretty young women impeccably dressed in shiny, new uniforms and alarmingly well-mannered; they are the most obvious indication that Nanjing is pulling out the big guns for the international sporting event that will see the entire globe judge the city of Nanjing and its YOG performance.Undoubtedly, the end of the Games will coincide with a disappearance of the Tram Meinü, so the fellas might want to take up that free-ride offer just for the sake of enjoying the view(s).
Furthermore, as the pictograms in the carriage will inform you, littering, running and most importantly eating and drinking are not allowed on the Olympic vehicle; one cannot help but remember the infamous clash on the Hong Kong metro between natives and nourishment-consuming mainlanders; it almost seems like a peace offering towards the colonized neighbours.
Finally, the cash collectors beside the tram entrances, while following the design of the red-rimmed bus boxes have been further equipped with a see-through window through which passengers can follow their money dropping down into the box and a collection of coins gathering at the bottom. The thought process behind this seems a bit of a mystery, since generally one would think that a box full of coins staring potential robbers in the face would be rather tempting; then again the transport authorities might be counting on the “petty cash” being too insignificant to truly incite petty thefts and vandalism.
The designers of the tram line seem to have taken Nanjing’s “green city” motto quite literally and so the tracks run through patches of grass, making them almost invisible to the eye and giving the overall system a lovely, natural look.
While the taster session runs only between Youth Olympic Village and Olympic Stadium, the full tramline actually reaches much farther south, almost as far as the Qinhuai New River estuary. Whether the full line will be open during the YOG’s or whether it will be limited to the village-to-stadium route is at this point anyone’s guess. What is known is that the tram intersects with Nanjing’s new metro system at four stops; Olympic Stadium East for Line 2, Yuantong for Lines 10 and 2 and two further stops connecting to the S3 Intercity Line, which is currently still under construction.
With the tram soft opening what is becoming increasingly tangible though is the “Olympic mood” that is spreading with the completion of countless shiny new buildings and modes of transport.
