Shanghai A to B

Some bits of info about Line 7 as it’s just about ready…

• Line 7 will start operations in early December 2009 and will first cover the part between Shanghai University and Huamu Road. An earlier plan, which featured local trains on a more frequent basis running a shorter distance, seems to have been shelved.

• Interchanges will be at Zhenping Road (Lines 3 and 4), Jing’an Temple (Line 2), Changshu Road (Line 1), Dong’an Road (Line 4), Yaohua Road (Line 8), West Gaoke Road (Line 6) and Longyang Road (Line 2; Maglev transfer). The interchange with Line 9 at Zhaojiabang Road goes into operations later this year. In 2010, when Line 10 opens, riders must first interchange to Line 1 at Changshu Road before flipping over to Line 10 at South Shanxi Road.

• Nearly all stations feature a through concourse and island platforms. The concourse at Huamu Road, the Pudong terminus, looks like a Taipei MRT station with a huge cutting into the platform (it’s very different from the cutting at Caobao Road on Line 1) and looks extremely spacious.

Stay tuned to Shanghai A to B and the Civitology sites for a look at the individual interchanges!

You know how annoying they are — illegal ads popping up in the wrong bits of the Metro (which, for those ads, is anywhere). That’s right. Illegal ads are making a comeback in the Shanghai Metro. It’s not clean stuff.

The Xinmin Evening News (page A10, August 13, 2009) has it that illegal ads are now all over the rage again on Line 2 trains. For a while, they were gone — and they’re now back again.

Your blogger has seen far more annoying things Beijing, where nary a Line 1 train just a few weeks ago were spared those annoying ads. We sure hope they’re gone ASAP.

Or at least it looks like that’s the case. The new part of Line 8 (Yaohua Road — Chengshan Road — Aerospace Museum) has an interesting — and at that — dangerous new sight to behold: platform screen doors that don’t work the way they’re supposed to work.

Reports from fellow passengers, including folks on the Shanghai MetroFans Club, pour in telling horror stories of screen doors that simply don’t work. Hard hit are two stops — Jiangyue Road (above-ground) and Jiangpu Road (underground). (The situation is worse at Jiangyue Road than at Jiangpu Road, which is actually a Phase I (late 2007) station.)

To make the whole case look even worse, staff went from being responsible to being negligent. Initial reports tell of station personnel keeping an eye on the fault door; however, as the number of screen doors out of action grew, the doors grew to become a mere tourist attraction instead of doing something useful.

Shanghai has it better than Beijing, where right underneath the platform lies the third rail (750V! Don’t play around with that thing!). Still, those doors are here for a purpose. It could be that Phase II of Line 8 could have been a rushed project, all in the name of Shanghai World Expo next year (2010). Whatever the reasons may be, we sure hope that they’re fixed as soon as possible. And if you’re headed that way in Shanghai, let’s not get too close to the doors…

Imagine this: you’ve just popped out of Linping Road station Line 4 — to the tune of neighborhood karaoke. We’re not kidding you: open-air KTV parlors seem to be all the rage just outside Exit 2 at the stop. The crooning is well underway by 19:00 to 20:00, and sometimes won’t stop until way into the wee hours.

China’s known as a nation that loves to go mad in front of the mic ever since karaoke invaded the country around the start of the 1990s. The KTV madness is put on pause only when the heavens open up — and as soon as the heavens clear, the singing resumes almost immediately.

Affected by this, of course, are people — about 30 families are unable to sleep and a fair number of them have complained. We’re not sure if the underground system is ready for in-station KTV, but something has to be done about this mass crooning outside the Metro station. (Source: Page A7, Xinmin Evening News, August 6, 2009)

We think you’ll love this virtual article title.

Yishan Road is a near-complete interchange solution as it stands now. If you change between Lines 3 and 9, you’ll never need to do a Virtual Interchange, and if you can hang on to a northbound Line 4 (Inner Circle), you can just take one Line 3 train to Hongqiao Road and hop on over to Line 4 there. The trouble is if you’re out of the station from the Line 4 part — or if you’re heading on the Outer Circle on Line 4 from Lines 3 or 9. That’s where your Single Journey Ticket expires — or where you’ll need the Virtual Interchange.

As Yishan Road stands right now, it’s a semi-dismal mess. All Line 3, Line 4 and Line 9 exits are independent of each other — not just to mention how many Exit 2s there are at the stop. Good news, though: by the end of 2009, an interchange passageway — underground with a staircase going above-ground — will be in the works, ready for the World Expo. If you’re doing Line 3, expect minor inconveniences while works impact Yishan Road.

Final plans call for all-underground interchange solution. Ah well, there goes your dosage of non-underground air…

Jiyang Road is likely to open in late 2009 — but those of us travelling on Line 8 wish it opened earlier. The station seems to be fully open with the lights on, but there’s something about Jiyang that makes it a world away from providing direct, in-station transfers with Line 6.

The official excuse is that Jiyang Road is located in Shanghai’s version of the Middle of Nowhere. No roads, no streets, no nothing comes close to Jiyang Road — and that bit’s clear if you take a look at it from a map: just northwest of a crossing.

When Jiyang Road opens later this year, it’ll provide a direct link with Line 6, and will also have an interchange reserved with Line 11. The station will have three floors underground: a concourse, the Line 8 island platforms and two island platforms further below, which will be shared between Line 6 and the future extension to Line 11. This will also feature the sole cross-platform interchange in the basic Shanghai Metro network (Lines 1 through 13).

In the meantime, the Line 6 part from South Lingyan Road to Jiyang Road has been built — but is not carrying anyone at the moment. Let’s just hope that it opens for good at the end of this year as well. By the way, be prepared for an odd scenario at Jiyang: yes interchange, no exit…

Waiting for an extended Metro Line 13? Recent reports on CCTV-9 tell of a late 2012 opening for Phase I of Line 13, which connects to the 2010 stretch ready for Expo 2010.

Phase I of Line 13 starts from Jinyun Road in Jiading, which will be a future interchange with Line 17 in itself, and ends at the Changqing Road Lines 7 / 13 interchange. From the maps we have access to, it’s going to be one interchange-heavy line. Here’s what we’ve seen so far (note: these details are not final and may change at any time):

• Jinyun Road station (interchange with Line 17)
• South Qilianshan Road station (interchange with Line 16)
• Daduhe Road station (interchange with Line 15)
• Jinshajiang Road station (interchange with Lines 3 and 4)
• Longde Road station (interchange with Line 11)
• Wuning Road station (interchange with Line 14)
• Changshou Road station (interchange with Line 7)
• Hanzhong Road station (interchange with Lines 1 and 12)
• West Nanjing Road station (interchange with Lines 2 and 12)
• Xintiandi station (interchange with Line 10)
• Changqing Road station (interchange with Line 7)

Madang Road, a Lines 9 / 13 interchange, will already be put into use in part by late 2009, and the Line 13 bit will follow in early 2010. Earlier plans saw the Lines 7 / 13 interchange at Changqing Road entering service during the Expo, but this seems to be less and less the case now.

Want more of Line 13? This line will head even further east into Pudong with Phase II. It’ll link with Line 8 at Chengshan Road, Line 6 at Dongming Road, Line 18 at Lianxi Road and Line 21 at Middle Huaxia Road before coming to a stop at Zhangjiang Road, near the Chuanyang RIver. As is the case with Phase I, all station names, interchange plans and the ilk are tentative. Please do not rush out and buy your house at — say — Zhangjiang Road in Pudong just because you saw this article!

There are now reports stemming from, in particular, the MetroFans community hinting at the opening of Exit 12 at the Century Avenue interchange, which is shared by Lines 2, 4 and 6 and will also be shared by Line 9 in late 2009.

Exit 12 brings direct access to the west side of Century Avenue (as in the avenue itself). You’ll be able to directly cross the avenue underground.

This exit is pretty close to the Line 9 bit of the station, so there’s, as always, the temptation to cross into Line 9. That bit, however, is reserved for later this year, when Phase II of Line 9 (Yishan Road — Middle Yanggao Road) opens up. Line 9 will the pass through two major interchanges — Xujiahui and Century Avenue.

Yes, we know that Shanghai in the summer can be hellishly hot. Yes, we know that most of us are easily lost at People’s Square and would more than appreciate somewhere to set our butts down in this 3-line, 17-exit interchange madhouse. Yes, we know that some of us are confused once “We are now at People’s Square”.

But that’s the thing — see, there’s a Special Assistance House inside the massive three-line interchange. It’s there to provide services as a nursery, quick drugstore, and has baby beds, water, wheelchairs, even toys.

Note the presence of that word — bed. Unfortunately, some of us, wanting somewhere to doze off without being scalded alive, are turning to that very Special Assistance House — and are occupying what we shouldn’t be occupying. The Xinmin Evening News reports today (August 3, 2009) on page A4 that some passengers are semi-lying on the chairs and are dozing off — a few hours in one go. And nobody’s taking care of this situation.

We sure hope you are more considerate. Right?