From Water to Data Flows: The Ancient Water Town of Shaoxing Adds Intelligence to Its Rail Transit System

Laying the Data Track for Rail Transit

Today, the city operates two subway lines, with three more under active construction and additional lines already in the planning stage. Of course, as this network grows, the volume of data generated by daily operations is set to increase exponentially.

During peak hours, subway stations rely on passenger flow prediction platforms and real-time monitoring systems to dynamically adjust transportation capacity. At the same time, massive streams of data—including passenger traffic data and train operating parameters—must be ingested in real time to ensure a seamless travel experience for passengers. This makes precise, efficient, and secure operations essential, placing new demands on the data processing capabilities of every station across the network.

But, accelerating construction is only a part of Shaoxing Metro's mission. Equal importance is placed on building a green, sustainable, intelligent rail network that enables low-carbon, smart operations across the entire lifecycle, while delivering resilient, reliable services. To deliver on this commitment, Shaoxing Metro needed a storage solution capable of supporting diverse services while delivering high performance without driving up investment costs.

The metro also recognized the importance of breaking down data silos created by the fragmented deployment of legacy applications. This further called for a unified storage solution that could store data from multiple applications, while enabling on-demand capacity expansion.

For any metro system, operational efficiency is also critical. For Shaoxing Metro, the ideal solution needed to be simplified, easy to replicate, and quick to deploy across multiple stations along a line, reducing management costs and improving said operational efficiency.

Of course, Shaoxing Metro also wanted to prepare itself for the next wave of intelligence. So its storage solution needed to be capable of evolving alongside future artificial intelligence (AI) applications, providing room for innovation, supporting the vision of a smart subway, and laying a solid data track for long-term growth.

Data Propels City Transportation

If Shaoxing's famous boats are powered by oars, the metro system depends on data for its propulsion, supporting a qualitative shift in how urban rail systems operate.

At the end of 2024, Shaoxing took a major step forward, integrating its rail transit and public transportation systems. Building on a rail plus bus model, Shaoxing Metro is focused on a coordinated green design, efficient operations, and intelligent control to enhance overall operational efficiency. Furthermore, intelligent scheduling algorithms will optimize train intervals, while automated operation systems are planned to enhance network performance. Smart stations, intelligent operations and maintenance (O&M) systems, and intelligent customer service platforms will further accelerate the journey toward service digitalization.

To turn this vision into reality, Shaoxing Metro partnered with Huawei to build a powerful storage foundation and lay down a pathway to future growth.

In digital and intelligent transformation, organizations often face an impossible triangle, the trilemma of quality, efficiency, and cost. Making the most of the full advantages of OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage, Huawei is helping Shaoxing Metro break this constraint, achieving breakthroughs in performance, architecture, and energy efficiency.

• A performance breakthrough aligns data with station operations. Powered by the disk-controller collaboration algorithm, Huawei OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage delivers 10 times higher performance than conventional storage solutions, while supporting on-demand capacity expansion. This performance boost enables real-time data analytics across station systems—including train scheduling, passenger flow, ticketing, and video monitoring—enhancing operational efficiency and reliability and ultimately delivering a smoother, more efficient travel experience for passengers.

• An architecture breakthrough enables flexible data flows in limited spaces. Thanks to its unique, lightweight, and compact hardware architecture design, Huawei OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage fits seamlessly into space-constrained subway stations. Unified O&M across multiple sites eliminates the need for dedicated equipment rooms, significantly reducing operational costs.

• An energy efficiency breakthrough makes green, low-carbon operations achievable. With intelligent data deduplication and a compression algorithm, Huawei OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage achieves a 3:1 data reduction ratio in virtualization scenarios. This slashes device procurement costs as well as power consumption.

While Shaoxing Metro continues to operate day and night, a transformation has been unfolding behind the scenes. With Huawei Data Storage integrated into its digital and intelligent systems, the metro has entered a new phase of modernization.

This transformation is not only reshaping how an ancient city moves, but also reflecting a deeper alignment between Huawei Data Storage and Shaoxing's urban development, where data is cast as the catalyst, bringing Shaoxing Metro into a future defined by smarter scheduling, lower energy consumption, and more human-centered services.