In metropolis, traffic congestion is the main factor that restricts the efficiency of city logistics. Traditional on-road delivery, consuming large amount of cost and time, can hardly satisfy the urge demands of rapid respond and on-demand delivery. Reducing unnecessary road transport is fundamental to make improvements in city logistics. Less road transportation means an independent network that can cover the whole city, and is close to customers. This is the basic requirements of an ideal system. Underground logistics system has its unique advantages. However, it can not make substantial progresses in modem city logistics, because of its difficult construction, high construction fund, and limited network. Analysis reveals that the characteristics of urban rail transit meet the requirements. Because of this, utilizing rail transit to establish a completely new system can improve efficiency of city logistics in metropolises. Well-developed rail network offer this system a chance to achieve total Integration, simple project construction, and effective delivery service. These are the advantages of the urban rail transit based city logistics system. The passage describes the outline of the system, and introduces a general mode of its delivery process. It also emphasizes several critical problems regarding with planning, establishing and operating work of the system, including the interaction between passenger transport and goods delivery.
