Although Beijing plans to spend billions of yuan on transport hubs, many are being delayed and pared back because of funding problems, the recent China International Forum on Urban Mass Transit in Shanghai heard.
A comprehensive transport hub typically combines metro railway, high-speed rail, an intercity station, an airport and a port.
The first such hub, Luohu station on the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border opposite Lowu, has a metro and intercity railway station.
'A lot of hubs have problems,' said Lu Yuan, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University.
One example is the high-speed train station in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province.
The Jinan station lies along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the nation's longest and most expensive high-speed rail link. Although the high-speed-train station was operational, the Jinan station had lagged behind in building metro and bus stations and other facilities due to lack of funds, Lu said.