On the buses for better transport

SHANGHAI will have more medium-capacity bus routes in the future.

“We have studied five possible routes,” said Xie Feng, head of the Shanghai Transport Commission, yesterday. “Two routes are feasible so far.”

One will be a shuttle between Hongqiao and Yan’an Road W. in Changning District and Nanpu Bridge in Huangpu District, covering 11 kilometers. About 70,000 to 91,000 passengers are expected to take the route every day. Buses will have an exclusive lane.

The other route will run from People’s Square in Huangpu District to Luheng Road Transport Hub in the Pudong New Area, covering 16.5 kilometers.

It will be the first mediumcapacity bus route connecting Pudong and Puxi. There will be eight stops along the route for people to transfer to the Metro, and one stop for people to transfer to bus No. 71, the existing medium-capacity bus.

The commission wants to have 22 medium-capacity bus routes across the city, which will cover 280km, Xie said.

“Thirteen of them will go from the south to the north and the other nine will go from the west to the east,” said Xie.

The bus system will also become more intelligent this year. At present bus routes in the downtown area can be tracked via app Shanghai Jiaotong. This will be available for routes in suburban areas by the end of this year.

Regarding the Metro system, Xie said the construction of the airport line will start this year. There will be stops at tourist attractions such as Shanghai Disney Resort and residentagglomeration areas such as Sanlin in Pudong.

The line will be the second Metro line connecting the two airports. In future, it will also be connected to Shanghai East Railway Station which is under construction near the Pudong International Airport.

Xie added that the traffic authority will further regulate shared bikes.

“There are now 900,000 shared bikes registered in the supervisory system, about 180,000 are ridden by people every day,” said Xie. “Studies suggested the city needs only 800,000 in total.”

This year, the traffic authority will issue a new assessment standard for shared bikes.

“We will adjust the number of shared bikes of each brand based on the result of their assessments,” Xie said. “Those who fail twice will be cleared out of Shanghai.”

All nine interprovincial expressway toll stations will be demolished by the end of this year, said Xie. It is part of a campaign to get drivers through toll gates more quickly.

In future, drivers traveling across provinces will only be charged once at the destination toll station.

“Vehicles crossing the provincial borders of Zhejiang and Jiangsu will be charged automatically by the electronic toll collection (ETC) system so they don’t have to stop,” said Xie.

Ninety percent of tolls in the future will be charged by ETC, the bureau said.