Metro marks carriage milestone
THE Shanghai Metro system has received its 5,000th carriage, operators announced yesterday. After testing, the carriage will operate on Line 2 before the end of the year as part of 31 new Metro trains.
The carriage features new amenities such as dynamic displays and USB ports where passengers can recharge electronic devices.
It and other recently acquired carriages will join trains equipped with “black box” technologies that allow engineers to detect and resolve problems faster than before, say officials.
The new trains will help Line 2 continue to expand its passenger capacity, while also reducing waiting times between trains on sections of the line between East Xujing and Songhong Road stations, as well as between Guanglan Road and Pudong International Airport.
Metro operators also revealed yesterday that a station platform modification project between Guanglan Road and Pudong International Airport will be finished this year. From next year, Metro passengers traveling to or from Pudong airport won’t have to switch trains at Guanglan Road.
The train depot near Chuansha station in Pudong has also finished modifications.
It will now allow 8-carriage trains to park there.
Apart from Line 2, another nine lines are also planning to increase passenger capacity later this year, said the city’s Metro operators.
“We aim to have 6,000 carriages in 2019 and 7,000 in 2020,” said Chen Chao, an official with the Metro operator charged with coordinating the new Line 2 trains.
Altogether, Shanghai currently has 841 Metro trains running on 15 lines, excluding those on the Pujiang Line and Shanghai Maglev Train.