Constrained by extreme scarcity of time, monetary and material resources, the ambition to build a tunnel for the metro operation was scaled back— the capability to run trolleybuses was deemed acceptable.

The tunnel was planned to be used as an air-raid shelter and eventual metro line;[20] however, with a cross-section merely 3 m wide and 2.85 m tall, and exposed rocks and wooden trestles scattered everywhere, it was unusable for public transit.

[10] As the most massive urban infrastructure project in the history of Guangzhou, Line 1 required funding of ¥12.75 billion, all of which was raised by the local government.

[23][24] Three and a half years after construction started, the 5.4 km (3.4 mi) section from Xilang to Huangsha opened for trial operation on 28 June 1997.

[25] The entire line opened for sightseeing tours between 16 February and 2 March 1999, delivering 1.39 million rides 15 days before closing for final testing.

[11] The success of Line 1 as a turnkey project acquired from Siemens[27] with 100% imported electromechanical equipment prompted a wave of similar proposals from twelve other cities in mainland China toward the end of the 1990s.

Amid tightened regulation, only Line 2 of Guangzhou Metro received the immediate green light to proceed in June 1998 on the condition that at least 60% of its electromechanical equipment must be sourced domestically.

This demonstrated the feasibility of cost reduction through procurement of domestic equipment, revealing a path to project approval to other Chinese cities and reigniting their aspirations to own a rapid transit system.

[34] Its first section, from Xilang to Huangsha, opened on 28 June 1997, making Guangzhou the fourth city in mainland China to have a metro system.

The latest extension, from Jiangnanxi to Guangzhou South railway station and from Sanyuanli to Jiahewanggang, opened on 25 September 2010 as the whole line resumed operation.

The 20.1 km (12.5 mi) long underground route is operated by six-car trains, which runs from Fei'eling to Gaozeng, serving 10 stations.

The currently operating 27.03 km (16.80 mi) first phase runs from Yuzhu to Xinsha, serving passengers of Huangpu and Xintang, Zengcheng.

The Knowledge City Branch Line, a ten-station 21.01 km (13.06 mi) long route located mainly within Huangpu, opened on 28 December 2017.

[75][76] Yang Cheng Tong was rebranded in November 2010 as a type of Lingnan Pass (Chinese: 岭南通), a new transport card that is valid in multiple cities across the Pearl River Delta.

A day pass holder can travel an unlimited number of times in the metro system during a limited period of validity starting from the first use.

Stored value tickets are not on sale anymore, but they will be presented as souvenirs to VIPs at the activities of the subway company and can have a 5% discount on fares.

[83] Guangzhou Metro later clarified that only the spouse and at most one pre-college child under 18 of each employee were allowed free access, limiting the number of such people to about 2,000.

This choice later proved invaluable in the densely populated Guangzhou with all three aforementioned lines today having a peak daily usage of over 1 million passengers each.

Line 3 was forced to adopt its final long term configuration of six-car trains and low headway operation only five years after opening.

[88] However, as of 2014, with continuing growth in passenger demand, many sections of Line 3 are still over 100% capacity even after conversion to six car trains and low headway operation.

Land expropriation and residence relocation would pose even greater challenges as evidenced by severe delays in the construction of the stations of Yide Lu and Shahe.

[99] With the opening of Phase II extending the line from Changban to Xiangxue in late 2016 ridership continues to increase, averaging 850,000 passengers per day as of April 2018.

On 11 October 2010, news broke that the concrete structures of two connecting passages in the north extension of Line 3 between Jiahewanggang and Longgui had substandard compressive strength.

[102] In its official response (Guangzhou Metro) claimed that it had been monitoring the connecting passages since they were completed in August 2009 and noticed no cracks, deformation or leaks.

Previously in 2009, the designer also evaluated one of the two connecting passages as safe upon demand of BCBB with the standard for its compressive strength at the lowest permissible value of 25 MPa.

[106] The cause of weaker-than-standard concrete structures was blamed by deputy mayor Su Zequn on cement being mixed manually instead of using machinery due to space limitation at the construction site.

The measure was intended to compensate for the inconvenience caused by a temporary traffic rule that would ban cars from the streets by the parity of the last digits of their license plates during the Games.

[113][114] Provisional flow control measures were put into force at all stations, but were utterly inadequate to contain traffic far beyond the design capacity of the metro system.

[117] Around 16:40 on 28 January 2013, in the immediate neighbourhood of the construction site of the Cultural Park Station of Line 6 on Kangwang Lu (Chinese: 康王路), a sinkhole of approximately 100 m2 in area and 10 m in depth collapsed, consuming several houses and trees.

[120] There were no casualties in the incident because metro construction workers detected geological anomalies 20 minutes before the initial collapse and promptly evacuated the neighbourhood.