Each station on Phase IV Metro lines will have at least four exits and entrances, and at each there will be a pair of escalators.
They will help those riders with difficulty walking as well as those who have difficulty carrying their luggage up and down stairs.
The city now has eight Metro lines extending 300 kilometers, which serve 6 million riders a day.
However, at some Metro stations, there are only escalators for riders going up, not down. There is only one elevator at each station that is specially designed for physically challenged people and people carrying luggage or pushing baby carts.
Some of the escalators are hard to find due to poor signage and riders have to walk a long way or make detours to find them.
“I often see people carrying heavy luggage or pushing baby carts looking for the escalator,” said Zhou Jianming, a deputy to Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress.
“It is unsafe and inconvenient,” Zhou said, adding that more escalators should be built at Metro stations.
According to the city’s rail construction office, the 2003 design only requires two-way escalators to be installed when the elevation gain is more than 10 meters. Otherwise, the Metro station will only have one upward escalator installed alongside stairs. Each station must have at least one escalator to reach the ground-level.
According to the 2013 design, two-way escalators are installed at each entrance of Metro stations. Escalators are set up at each side of the main road near the Metro station.
The rail office has also required Metro operators to install signage outside Metro stations to guide riders to escalators and elevators.