Abandoned places: Shenzhen Airport

Shenzhen is a Chinese city of somewhere between 13 and 20 million people, which immediately borders Hong Kong and which has been the Chinese government's 'demonstration project' for free market principles for the best part of the last four decades.  The proximity of the city to Hong is demonstrated by the fact that the HK Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has two lines which interchange on to Shenzhen's metro, with a border crossing between them.  The rate of growth of the city of Shenzhen (the population has pretty much doubled this century) has necessitated the construction of a lot of new infrastructure, not least the metro system and a new airport.

Overview of the airport site: in the foreground is the end of Metro line 1, which served the airport for only four or five years before the old terminal complex was closed.  The two original terminals are behind.  The new airport retained the existing runway and buitl a new terminal complex and second runway on reclaimed land.

The old airport has a relatively modern form.

Departures level could pass for one of many modern airports. Yet it's abandoned!

All entrances are boarded up with fencing.  A lot of the airport specific internal fittings such as check-in desks has been removed and presumably repurposed at anther airport somewhere in China.

The entrances to the airport are barricaded with concrete barriers.

This area between the two terminals would once have been access for servicing and staff. 

Old fittings and signage now dumped.

Arrivals level, from where buses and coached would have departed.  The long car-free roads were popular with joggers, parents/children walking, and the local police cadets practicing marching and drill!

This would have been a bustling bus station until about five years ago.

Doors to the terminal at arrivals level are also blocked.

The number of airlines now operating in China would have rendered this sign far too small if it were still in use!

Dry and dilapidated water features on the arrivals level.

Entrance to the car park

Bleacher seating around the short stay car park suggests at some point it has been used for some kind of sporting event.

Escalators are still in situe on the access to the metro station.

However this entrance to Shenzhen Airport East metro station is definitely closed.  The metro station itself still functions as the terminus of Line 1 and has a lot of interchange with local buses.

 It is quite eerie to walk round an abandoned airport and have nosey around.  It doesn't seem like there are any obvious immediate plans for the site, but looking at the expansion of air traffic in China I would expect to see the site developed as additional cargo terminals, or maybe one of the terminals reopened as a 'low cost carrier' terminal at some point.  The old aircraft parking apron is being used for corporate jets.

Chengdu Metro

Earlier in 2018 life took me to Chengdu, in the Sichuan province of China.  I had time for a quick ride out on Chengdu's modern metro system.  First and foremost, everything was in [a variant of] Chinese, and English.

Signage in Chengdu Airport.  The Chinese like to give everything a number so suggests a routing that's rather more complicated than it is.

Tourist orientated map of Chengdu Metro.  Other than spicy, chilli laced foods, Chengdu is most famous for panda sanctiary and breeding: top right there is an extension shown to 'Panda Street' which I believe was actually open at the time of visiting - but the rate of construction of metros in China I forgive them for not keeping every map up to date!

Ticker machine.  Tickets are usually bought by selecting the destination station on the screen.  Prices are just a few yuan, comfortably less than £1 for any journey.

Tickets are issued on reusable plastic cards. Presumably this batch was specially issued when the airport line opened.

Come on in!  Nice clear signage.

At the time of visiting this queuing system was not in operation, but looks like it's needed for the peaks. 

Security is taken seriously, with airport style checks on entering stations. However I have no idea what the perceived benefit of this poster is!

Platform edge doors. This could be pretty much anywhere in China (or the Elizabeth line!)

The red line

Typical train interior.  Again it could be any modern far eastern metro.

LCD screens in trains show these very nifty diagrams of the next station, showing where you are relative to the lifts, escalators or stairs!

More conventional interior display.

Taking a page out of a Japanese (or LUL, late noughties) marketing campaign on behaviours.

Chinese rolling stock.  Alas neither time nor knowledge allowed any photos of the trains!

Another station layout, this one also showing interchanges from the turquoise line to the red and blue lines. Brilliant!

And finally this train has an interior all over advertisement.

Corfu City Bus

 

In June 2018 I went to Corfu for the weekend (primarily to then fly to Thessaloniki via Athens and back, long story but it made perfect sense).  Not being a fan of taxis I sought to make use of the local bus service for my travels between the airport at Corfu and the town on Kanoni, a couple of miles away.  And sometimes you come across a nice little operation with well presented buses (in no way influenced by their choice of bus) and think 'I want to write about that...'....so here goes!

The hourly bus service between Corfu Airport and Corfu Town gets prominent placing out the front of the airport terminal.  On the other side of the road are taxi and the line up of coaches taking package holiday tourists from airport to their accommodation.

However I didn't initially use the airport bus but walked to the kinda-nearby route 2 for a quicker link to my booked accommodation in Kanoni town. This is the stop.

An assortment of secondhand Mercedes 405s make up the majority of the Corfu City Bus fleet.  Still a fine vehicle!  This short wheel base version (one of four in the fleet according to their website) is approaching the southern terminus of route 2, where it completes the hairpin turn and then reverses on to the stop.

A pair of Mercedes 405s with slightly differing interpretations of the wavy front colourscheme stand in Corfu town.

Vehicle interiors are getting a little scruffy but all the important things like air conditioning work well.

However the second hand nature of the buses is evident, such as emergency instructions in German.  Many buses carried internal fleet numbers and cab signage from their previous operator.

Route maps are displayed inside the buses.  However they are not full route maps: the best interpretation is that they are routes of interest to tourists.

If bus tickets are bought in advance, from a local or shop or the machines at stops in Corfu town, they cost 1.20 Euros.  They are validated for each trip by being dipped in to the driver's ticket machine.  However if they are bought from the driver they are 1.70 Euros.  I received both pre-printed tickets which needed validating, and the more modern receipt type ticket from drivers.

Day tickets for Corfu City Bus are also available. They allow for a discount on the open top tours of the Corfu town area; I assume the open top service and Corfu City Bus are related operators.

If you take up the option of the open top bus tour there are two Dennis Tridents in use with the Corfu City Tour, which according to the Open Top Bus Site were formerly in use in San Sebastian, Spain.

There are also three of these IndCar contraptions for open top tours.

Timetable information is generally very simply presented and easy to follow.  It is not hot on intermediate timing points though.  Corfu town square the effectively the blue bus station, and longer distance coaches round the island of Corfu run from the green bus station, a little way out of town.

The bin men were revolting!  And accordingto on-line forums their strike is either an annual or permanent feature of life on Corfu.  There were piles of rubbish everywhere.

Gratuitous Merc 405 shot in Corfu town.

One at the Kanoni terminus.

And a 12m version outside Corfu airport with the white wheel trims looking very smart,

And finally why Kanoni.  For the top floor of Anna Apartments overlooking the threshold of Corfu's runway!

Great photos!