One and half year ago, I posted Century Ave Station Opens on Oct 28. In that post, I described how the future of the Century Avenue Station will look like when it is fully completed. Below is the diagram I used:

The Line #6 goes on the top at B1 level. Line #2, and Line #4 go in the B2 level, cross the Line #6. Line #9 (partly opened on December 29, 2007) will run deeper on level B3. After one and half years, the station is finally ready, and I went there to send the first hand report to my readers.

The Station Diagram

Below is a more professional diagram of Metro Line #6, #2, and #4.

The Relationship of the Lines

Below is the Line #6.

The train is running on the left, and on the right are three big hallway leading to 3 different lines. The photo on the left shows the glass gates, and on the right shows the hallways. On the right photo, you can only see one, but there are two other in the distance.

This is how the hallway looks like looking from the glass doors.

The two hallways leads to two different lines. You may notice that the ceiling of the lines are painted the same color as the identification color of the corresponding lines. I love this design very much. The best design is the design that doesn’t require directions or signs.

Above: the ceiling of the entrance.
Below: the direction to the transition lines.

It is pretty clear, isn’t it?

Future Expansion

Just like the other tunnels, the third one leading to Metro Line #9 will open when the Line #9 is ready. Now it is closed by some big rolling gates.

Interested what’s behind the gate? Here you are:

Transition from Line #2, #4 to #6?

Here is how it looks like for passengers who want to transit from #2, #4 to #6.

Below is the photo taken from the end of the elevator. On this photo, you can see the platforms of both Line #2 and Line #6. The top rail is for #6, and the below rail is for #2.

Getting up to B1 using the elevator, and you are only about 10 steps away from the line #6. Pretty efficient.

When there are many people, the transition looks like this:

Two Sides of the Rail

Metro Line #6 Century Avenue Station is maybe the only underground Metro Station that have platforms for the two direction arranged on different side of the rail. All the other underground stations put the platform in the middle and two railways on the opposite sides.

This brings some challenge for passengers – if they arrived at the wrong side, they have to get back to the platform of either line #2, or line #4, and the get to the Line #6 using the elevators and stairs on the other side.

Model of the Station

In People’s Square Station, I found out a model of the Century Avenue Station.

Conclusion

In terms of convenience of transition and clarify of the design, this is the best designed stations in Shanghai. Compared to the "short transition path" and the "long transition path", this is a very big improvement. This station will also be the largest transition station (4 lines) in near future.

Welcome to this brand new station!

Among all the transition in the current Shanghai Metro System, I love the platform design of South Xizang Rd. Station of Line #4 and Line #8 most. That is the easiest transition and shortest among all the current transition plans. I am a Metro Fans, and am always attracted by construction site. I got the change the take some photos of the design of the station.

Location of South Xizang Rd. Station

According to this map, it is at the intersection of line #4 and the line #8 (at the south side of the circle line #4). Sorry that the Automatic Vendor Machine don’t have an English map.

So this interaction is pretty simple:

Line #4 – going west and east.

Line #8 – going north and south

So the two lines forms a perfect 90 degree cross.

Signs

The transition center used many stickers on the ground, like this one to point people to the right direction.

Entrance – The Perfect Cross at the Top Level

The station is like a big +. At the center of the station, you will see the sign in the middle of the pictures below: two directions pointing to Line #4, and the other two point to Line #8. At the border of four side of the octagon is an entrance to the Metro Lines. The four pictures around the center diagram shows the entrances.

The picture on the top left and top right corner show the entrance and exit gates. These gates are the other four borders of the octagon. This make is pretty clear about which direction people need to go.

Since the Metro Line #4 runs below the line #8, it is much deeper, and requires such a long elevator to transport people there:

The elevator to the Line #8 is much shorter – half of the length.

Transition – the Lower Perfect Cross

I just talked about entering the station, and choose the right direction (out of the four directions). Here is the experience for transition passengers from Line 8 or Line 4.

This is the view from Metro Line #8. This entrance is at the middle of the platform. If you want to get some idea about where I was to take this picture: the train runs on the left hand or the right hand of where I stayed. I am looking downstairs.

At the end of the stairs, they also have this familiar signs.

So the experience for people transition from Line 8 to Line 4 is:

• Leave the train.
• Go downstairs to reach this sign.
• Turn left or right and continue to walk downstairs
• You will find you are in the middle of the platform for line #4

Transition from Line 4 to Line 8 is exactly the same way:

• Leave the train
• Go up stairs to reach the sign
• Turn left or right and continue to walk upstairs
• You will get to platform of Line #8

This is among the shortest transition distance I have find out in the Metro System so far.

Improvement Needed

Since the walking stairs in the middle, like an island, and all the elevators goes to the farther side of the platform, they have to put on the signs on the poles like below to tell people which way to go. These two signs are at the two side of the pole, so actually they are pointing to the two direction directions.

One says:

To take elevator to exit the station, this way

The other side

To transit to Line #4, this way.

I did see some confusing passengers who  want to exit used the middle walking island to get to the other platform and get very confused. There are also passengers w

ho use the elevator to get to the top of the entrance hall and get down – waste of time.

Good luck with your transition at South Xizang Rd. Station.

.

6

Congratulations to the newly opened Shanghai Metro Line #6. I hope this series of post covers most of the Metro Line #6. I love this line!

Line Overview

Shanghai Metro Line #6 is the only line in the Metro system that completely runs in Pudong. It starts from the northmost Gangcheng Road Station, and arrives at Jiyang Road Station on the south. The whole line runs in Pudong.

Total length: 33.09 km
Among them, 12.04 km is above the ground – like light rail,
20.8 km is running below the ground – like a real metro, or subway
There is a portion of 0.25 km that connects the underground lines and the ground lines. It is almost under-ground but don’t have a cover.

The Metro Line #6 is marked with color pink (as shown at the top). All the seats, signs, and decoration are pink. I even want to call it "Hello Kitty Line".

Stations

It has 28 stations. 19 stations are underground, and 9 stations are above ground.

• Gangcheng Rd.
• North Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone
• Hangjin Rd.
• South Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone
• Zhouhai Rd.
• Wuzhou Avenue
• Dongjing Rd.
• Jufeng Rd.
• Wulian Rd.
• Boxing Rd.
• Jinqiao Rd.
• Yunshan Rd.
• Deping Rd.
• Beiyangjing Rd.
• Minsheng Rd.
• Yuanshen Stadium
• Century Avenue
• Pudian Rd.
• Lancun Rd.
• Shanghai Children’s Medical Center
• Linyi Xincun
• West Gaoke Rd.
• Dongming Rd.
• Gaoqing Rd.
• West Huaxia Rd.
• Shangnan Rd.
• South Lingyan Rd.

All the platforms are 80 meters in length, and hold 4 train carts.  Explorer Shanghai has a great map illustrate the stations of Shanghai Line 6.

Dongming Rd. Station

Dongming Rd. Station is a typical "far" station from the downtown. Look at this: if there were no metro sign on the top of the pole, it is hard to believe there is a station entrance behind the man. For the chicken and egg question, I believe for Dongming Rd. Station, it must be "Metro Station first, then development".

Look for this sign to locate Metro Line #6.

Buying Tickets

Most of the lines leverages ticket vendor machines. Below are the machine at the Metro Line #6 Dongming Rd. Station.

Below: The screen of ticket vendor machine. You can choose a destination station, and it will show you the money needed.

This is what the ticket looks like:

I bought an additional ticket just to keep it with me. I believe in the future, it will be hard to find a ticket like this – I mean after 10 years.

Take a Ride

Below: The entrance of the station. There are some improvement over the current gate used in Metro Line #1 and #2: It is using arrow to point you which side of the gate you should enter. This is very handy since many people get confused on Metro Line #1 and #2 about which side of the gate they should enter after they place their card on the island.

After swipe your card, the money in the card (remaining amount) is shown on the LED screen. 

Platform

This is the platform of Metro Line #6 Dongming Rd. Station. The train is approaching. The newly built metro lines are all equipped with glass doors – for safety reason and to save energy for air condition.

Look for the pink lines. It is everywhere along the line.

It also have signs to denote where you should stand when wait for the train. The problem is, unlike Metro Line #1 and #2, passengers still need time to get used to Metro. When I took my first ride, there are people rushing into the cart from all direction, and completely block the way for people getting out.

The station is pretty of minimalism. The seats are very simple.

There is a technical problem for the platform – there is about 10 cm gap between the cart and the platform. The train is higher than the platform. This can be a big problem, and I don’t know whether they can fix it. The good thing is, they have a lovely sticker to caution people about it.

The Train

Here comes the "Hello Kitty Line"! The seats are pink. Wendy loves the train a lot. Me? Hmm…. Do they have other color to pick other than pink? I understand it is hard to find out 18 distinct colors to mark the 18 future metro lines in Shanghai.

Again, the pinky seat.

This one: when there are more people in the train.

Toilets!

The other huge improvement: line #6 has toilets inside the station – inside the passenger area (when you hold the ticket and enters the gate). I am not sure whether it is for all stations or just a few. At lease I saw it on two transition station: Lancun Rd. Station, and Centaury  Avenue Station. Below are taken at Lancun Rd. Station. Although th

is is a big improvement, please be aware that they don’t provide toilet paper, and there is no vendor machine… If you are in a hurry, and do need some, well, try your luck to see if you can get some newspaper…. :-( Hope someone can fix this in the future. Anyway, big improvement already since there were not fixed toilets in any other stations before.

Transition to Line 2 and 4

With Metro Line #6, you can easily transit to Metro Line #2, Metro Line #4 at Century Avenue Station, and Metro Line #4 at Lancun Rd. Station. I have the following two articles to particularly introduce these two transitions.

• Shanghai Metro Century Avenue Station (to be added)
• Shanghai Metro Lancun Rd. Station (to be added)

News about Metro Line #6

January 2, 2008

Wendy just took Line #6 at rush hour (6:30 PM). She reports that it is too crowded – extremely crowded. The safe guard is pushing people into the cart, and there are still many people waiting outside. The current interval of 15 minutes does not serve the demand well. If the first working day of Line #6 turned out to be so crowded, how about the future. On the other hand, it proves that to build Line #6 is a good decision, a clear contract with Maglev.

January 2, 2008

On TV, and forums, passengers are complaining about the adjustment of the bus lines around Metro Line #6. According to the previous forecast, Metro Line #6 will take the major roles of transportation for Pudong. So many bus lines were canceled at the same time when the Metro Line #6 opens. The reality is, it is too crowded for people to get onto line #6, while there are no buses available. I wish the problems like this will be solved very soon.

6 Good luck, my Hello Kitty Line.

YLF