David Dehghan: Great examples of designs and usability in Hong Kong subway system

I am incredibly impressed by some of the usability designs in Hong Kong subway. It inspires you to think and design well thought out systems and software.

Changing train is super fast:
The usual experience of changing line in other cities are: You get out of your current train then you line up behind a huge crowd and slowly go up the stair case or escalators to a different level to take a different train. However most people stay close to the end of the escalator and therefore you get overcrowding in the middle of the train and under utilization at each end of the train.

In Hong Kong instead the interchange between 2 subway lines are done on the same level where the 2 trains line up side by side. You get out of one train and walk straight for about 10m and into the next train. Instead of 1 subway stop overlap between 2 lines there are 2 stops. See the image below. Each stop is optimized for transfer in one direction. I did not notice the trains going up and down to come to the same level so all the trains must be traveling on the same level. The experience is incredibly convenient. The entire train can empty out and load in the other train in just about 30 seconds. No pushing and shoving or running is necessary!

The Subway map inside the train:
1) You can see the direction you are going instantly which is incredibly convenient.
2) You can see which stop you are at right a way. As the train moves in one direction the lights turn off. In the example below you can see that I am going on the red line from the Central station and I have traveled 2 stops.