Anyone know if this train is still operating?

@HFCAMPO

You are seriously wrong in thinking "They would have never begun... unless they knew...." First of all, the Metro is a prestige project which immediately puts "profit" on a remote back burner out of sight never to be seriously considered. The "profit" in this type of project in the construction, materials and labor so all that money only exists if the thing is built.

The process of calculating either payback, ROI, or even profit is a pretty straight forward.Usually, they do a NPV (Net Present Value) calculation based on a myriad of assumptions, guesses, wishes and a few facts. As all of these things are also based on an additional myriad of assumptions, guesses, wishes and a few facts. One key component is "ridership" which is a guess, usually a well calculated, detailed SWAG (Scientific Wild Assed Guess) but a guess nonetheless. Not to bore the analytically challenged each guess in this pile of guesses, and a few facts, has a range, low to high. The guy who cranks the algorithm knows what the Boss wants so will skew all the little guesses to ensure the big final guess gives the Boss what he/they want. They want a subway. The subway will be justified with numbers. My favorite BS component is "contribution to the general economic growth of _____." You can fill in the location, Kunming, Yunnan or California.

A subway is built because it is wanted not because it would make money. It is wanted by the power elites so they can pat their own backs. It is wanted by capitalists who will bid low and will trust the power guys to ante up to keep the project going. Lots of money to share in 300,000,000,000 yuan.

Note: This is not a Chinese thing. This has been going on in the U.S. for a long time.

Think of the subway as a money train.

As long as there is something to tear down and build or rebuild, two things are going on. First, GDP goes up and as a tool for rating government officials you just can't beat impressive, never ending, visible projects adding jobs and boosting GDP.

Second, tearing down and building is where the money is. There is a lot of opportunity to make and pass money around. When you figure in what can be skimmed by using substandard materials then making more money to do it again. well, why would anyone want to stop?

Beijing Lu is a goldmine. Seems to me that there was a lot of repaving done before the Metro project started. Then just as the Metro blue walls came down beautification began. Beautification is pretty near complete, lots of trees have been cut down, but now holes, square red puddles where there were trees, and trenches across street and walk ways make walking muddy and hazardous.

Did you notice the tremendous improvement in the blue walls? No longer blue metal sheets attached to stakes, now, a cement footing is topped with aluminum framed blue composite panels. Reusable? Nope. Salvaged for sure but clearly intended for one time use.

I call that GDP enhancing "innovation."

I would not expect Kunming City to be on the hook for repaying the loans. More likely, one or several entities have been set to borrow the money and operate the subway. In Beijing, a line could be operated by a company. So Line 1 might be operated by "KM Metro Line 1 Company", and so on.

But the more interesting way to look at how the loans will be serviced is looking at required riders. The operating company has two sources of revenue, riders or operating revenue and advertising. In Beijing some lines lose money operating but adverts are enough to let them be profitable.

In the aggregate, loans totaling 300 Billion yuan, for 30 years, at say 3.0% interest, would require about 15 Billion yuan in yearly payments on a fully amortized basis. If operating expenses are 100 million yuan per day, it would take more than 140 million riders per week at 2 yuan to break even.

How many people live in Kunming?

Anyway, you can expect to see lots of advertising in the Metro.

The recent flooding here reminded me of similar flooding in Beijing and Los Angeles. It seems the onset of seasonal heavy rains results in underpass flooding. In Los Angeles and Beijing, part of the problem is the accumulation of trash in storm drains. The volume and force of the rain moves the trash until it collects and restricts water flow. In both L.A. and Beijing, in the days following flooding, crews were busy opening drains fishing out trash. In subsequent weeks, flooding seems to diminish.

I agree with tigertiger's analysis of contributing factors. I would also suggest the rapid construction throughout Kunming impedes and diverts natural runoff paths resulting in unplanned volumes of runoff showing up in unplanned locations.