[Objective]Recently,the passenger flow in the city railway renovated from existing lines is generally low,it is necessary to systematically analyze the reasons and put forward corresponding countermeasures to improve the operational effi-ciency and facilitate the travel of suburban passengers.[Meth-od]Based on researches of 3 city railways renovated from ex-isting lines in Yangtze River Delta region,especially the multi-dimensional analysis of the annual passenger flow in Shanghai Jinshan Railway,the characteristics of passenger flow distribu-tion are summarized from time and space two dimensions.The composition of the city railway passenger flow and the charac-teristics of its temporal and spatial fluctuations are summarized based on the quantitative analysis.The passenger flow demand and the impact of the city railway on the residents along the line are qualitatively analyzed according to the long-term obser-vation of the railway staff.Combining the results of the quanti-tative and qualitative analyses and focusing on the specific pas-senger flow status of the 3 city railways,factors affecting the city railway passenger flow volume are analyzed in detail,cor-responding measures to increase the passenger flow volume are put forward.[Result & Conclusion]The reasons for the city railway low passenger flow in China mainly include factors re-lated to the characteristics of city passenger flow itself,limita-tions of line condition,limitations of train operation plan,in-sufficient travel convenience,and weak market competitive-ness.The countermeasures include improving the planning and construction of the line network,enhancing the line passing ca-pacity,optimizing train operation plans,improving the connec-tion and transfer between lines,adhering to the public welfare fare policy,promoting the comprehensive transformation guided by public transportation and etc.