It was envisioned as a north south circulator line for the Tianhe District's new CBD connecting Guangzhou East railway station with the proposed Zhujiang New Town CBD, crossing the Pearl River to Chigang station on what was then Line 2 and turning east to Xinzhou.

However at the time it was planned to run under Liede Avenue just east of the new CBD instead of under Xiyu West Road like it does today.

Tiyu Xilu Station will use cut-and-cover construction with a bored section in the middle where it runs under Line 1 with only 80 cm (31 in) of cover.

The expected long term peak demand section of the Phase 2 project is 20,000 passengers per hour per direction.

[20] In 2007, 17 km (10.56 mi) of Phase 2 line also redesigned to run underground instead of elevated at a cost of an additional 1 billion Yuan.

[21][22] With the redesigned underground alignment, passing loops for express services were removed to control construction costs.

[24] In 2010, after the completion of Phase 2, Line 3 has become the most important north-south traffic artery in the urban area of Guangzhou.

[25][26] The new B2 and B4 series trains will have luggage racks to support Line 3's role as an airport rail link.

[27] In 2015, with daily average ridership reaching over 1.5 million passengers per day, several rows of seats and all luggage racks where removed from all trains in an attempt to increase capacity.

[30] In March 2018, the whole line heading in the peak direction of the Zhujiang New Town CBD exceeded 100% capacity during the AM peak period with a maximum full load rate exceeding 120% in the section from Yantang Station to Guangzhou East Station on the Airport Line.

[33] Peak period headways have been reduced to every 1 minute 58 seconds and now reaches fleet and signal system capacities.

A further extension east of Haibang Station to Hai'ou Island and eventually across the Pearl River to Dongguan was proposed in 2007.

The known service arrangements are as follows: The Tiyu Xilu-Tianhe Coach Terminal Section is planned to no longer operate as part of Line 3.

[41] In August 2020, plans were announced a further 18 additional trains to be purchased for Line 3 to reduce headways and improve capacity.