Comments on: Shanghai’s Metro, Now World’s Longest, Continues to Grow Quickly as China Invests in Rapid Transit

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 22:07:18 +0000

In a few years (about 2016) the underground of Shanghai will be even double as big as now around 720 km. As long as from London to Scotland!

By: Pellvetin

Pellvetin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:35:26 +0000

Although Shanghai’s rail length is indeed the longest, it still seems some distance away from being up to world standards. I live in Singapore, have been to Shanghai and have compared Singapore’s MRT with Shanghai’s metro systems. Just to name some of the problems:

1) On the older (and busier) lines, many of the stations do not have platform-screen doors. This poses safety threats.

2) Some stations still do not have disabled-accessible features – that is, the lack of lifts and ramps to access the platforms.

3) Lack of careful planning, as seen on Line 6. It is the only line serving the heavily populated Pudong area, but still uses trains with 4 C-car carriages (as a result of not renewing the population data of Pudong for 7 years), resulting in severe crowding during peak hours. The same goes for Lines 1 and 8, where authorities had undercalculated the ridership rates.

It is better nowadays, after the mad rushes before Expo 2010. The Metro authorities have reviewed the problems and pledged to solve them. Newer Lines, 10 and 11, do seem to be much better than older ones. We can just hope that the construction groups will now turn their focus to quality rather than speed to build the remaining lines, now that all the main lines are completed.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:43:06 +0000

This is an old article, so I’m not sure if my reply will be read by anyone, but I’d like to address the comment regarding Shanghai has having more rapid transit than the entire country of Japan. The line between rapid transit and railway is blurred in Japan; the distance between railway stations in major metropolitan areas is many times similar to what westerners consider ‘rapid transit’. Couple this with the fact that many rail lines operate at rapid transit-like frequencies i.e. every 5 minutes during peak hours and it’s hard to not consider many rail lines as ‘rapid transit’. The insides of most rail cars in the Tokyo area look the same as subway cars with seats lining the walls so there is a large space in the middle of the cars for people to stand; in fact, some rail lines are so crowded that the seats fold up during rush hour so it’s standing room only!

It’s hard for outsiders to understand Japanese transportation because when westerners look at the data and information, then try to understand it all based on what they already know i.e. western transportation. So here’s a statistic to ponder: the Tokyo subway carries close to 7 million daily passengers; railways in the Tokyo metropolitan area carry over 20 million daily passengers. Next tidbit to think about: the most ridden line in central Tokyo is the Yamanote Line, a ‘rail line’, with 3.5 million daily passengers. It operates at 2 minute frequencies during rush hours. Last fact: all Tokyo subway lines except 3 have through-service on a rail line operated by a different company than Tokyo Metro or TOEI (the 2 subway operators). Even after reaching the last stop on a subway line, this does not mean the tracks end. In most cases, the tracks continue onto a rail line and subway trains continue to make stops on the rail line just as if it were still in the subway. Sometimes subway trains will travel 50 km further after reaching the last subway station.

To consider one’s self as having a comprehensive knowledge of transportation, one needs to study and understand what goes on in Japan. It is completely unique compared to anywhere else in the world and therefore hard to understand if you try to apply what you know of western transportation.

By: Harald Germany

Harald Germany — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:39:38 +0000

In China about 2 Million workers in the moment are builting rail-systems. About half of them new underground lines. In average every month (!) 14 new underground stations are built. No other country, not even the US, has a workforce or money like this.

By: TV

TV — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:15:32 +0000

Incredible how similar this map is to Tokyo’s train system. Japan is often lauded for its shinkansen/HSR network, but is often forgotten for its metro networks. Part of the reason its HSR works so well is, in part, due to its well designed metro networks in the Tokyo and Kansai (Osaka) regions.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:25:29 +0000

No. Those Shanghai inner suburbs are outer-urban neighborhoods. The municipality of Shanghai is actually much larger, with 19 million people, but Chinese municipalities routinely include suburbs and even rural hinterland (however, Shanghai and Beijing municipalities are roughly coterminous with the metro areas). And Mumbai’s population number is for the entire city, not just downtown. Mumbai is just much denser than Shanghai.

By: George

George — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:56:15 +0000

Well, according to Wikipedia, which is what Yonah cites here for his claim that Shanghai is the largest city proper, the 2 largest cities are:

Shanghai – 13,831,900 – core district + inner suburbs (1928 sq km)
Mumbai – 13,830,884 – municipal corporation (603 sq km)

So basically METROPOLITAN Shanghai has a thousand people more than DOWNTOWN Mumbai. That doesn’t really tell us much, does it?

By: Ray Ark

Ray Ark — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:08:22 +0000

line 1 trains are 3m wide, whereas the ones on line 5 are 2.6.
station platforms would have to be all rebuilt to accomadate line 1 trains on line 5′s platforms

By: cph

cph — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:58:34 +0000

I remember it used to be “three rounds and a sound”: clock, sewing machine, bicycle and radio!

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:05:24 +0000

Shanghai Railway Station is a 5-minute out-of-system transfer, but there are two extra penalties there. First, the corridor in between is really crowded, with too much retail and too many people on not enough space. And second, Shanghai Railway Station doesn’t have many ticket vending machines. The TVMs available on the subway in Shanghai don’t sell multi-ride tickets, just single-rides, and they break down all too often. At most stations, it forces you to spend 1-2 extra minutes buying a ticket; at Shanghai Railway Station, where trains dump loads of people without multi-ride tickets, the lines go up to 10 minutes when the TVMs break down.