Inner Mongolia’s Wuhai Bus Station, with an investment of 215 million RMB, has been completed for nearly 4 years but has not sold a single ticket to date. Apart from briefly serving as a makeshift hospital during the pandemic period, it has been lying idle.
According to a report from The Paper on October 23, after the completion and delivery at the end of 2020, the Wuhai City Bus Hub Station, which integrates passenger waiting, ticket sales, passenger security checks, and offices, has not fulfilled its intended purpose. As per the original plan, the Wuhai City Bus Hub Station was supposed to be one of the largest and most popular bus stations in Wuhai.
On October 7, the main building entrance of the bus hub station was closed with a few workers still involved in construction inside. The second phase of the bus hub station project is located opposite to the first phase and has been rented out as office spaces.
An official from the Wuhai Transportation Bureau mentioned that by the end of October this year, once the fire inspection of the main structure of the bus hub station is passed, the Wuhai Bus Station will be able to move to the new hub. Some fire facilities within the station were altered during its use as a makeshift hospital, and now it is necessary to restore those to the original blueprint for the station to be operational.
Wuhai City, the smallest prefecture-level city in Inner Mongolia, consists of three districts – Haibowan, Wuda, and Hainan, covering a total area of 1754 square kilometers with a population of 556,200 residents. Since 2013, with the popularity of private cars, the number of people choosing to travel by bus from bus stations has gradually decreased.
Given this backdrop, questions arise about the demand for the bus hub station constructed in 2018, completed at the end of 2020, with an original envisioned purpose yet to sell a ticket. Can such a station attract passengers in this scenario?
Public data indicates that the Wuhai City Bus Hub Station covers a total area of 143,459 square meters, with a total building area of 27,740 square meters, and a total investment of 215 million RMB.
The report quickly sparked discussions on the internet.
Netizens commented, “Such unfinished projects are the result of the ‘grand ambitions’ of local officials at that time. They simply disregard the money of the country and the people!” “Even in big cities like Guangzhou, bus stations are being shut down in numbers. The fate of a bus station in a city with only about 500,000 residents is evident.” “Whether it serves a purpose or not, the leaders get their achievements, the stakeholders profit – is this always the case?” “Seeing new bus stations being built without considering the current bus market is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
“These kinds of unused bus stations are everywhere, especially in small county towns. They are built but remain idle.” “Similar situations can be seen in the Shizuishan Bus Station in Ningxia.” “The Changsha South Bus Station is also nearly empty, with very few buses.” “In Nanning, there is a bus station where the staff outnumber the passengers!” “In Qingzhou, Shandong, a new bus station was built but never put into operation.” “After the completion of the Qiqihar Nan Station Bus Station, no one went there, and it turned into a government service center.”