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
Thanks Jianshuo, but still the problem, there are no pinyin or English spellings on the map, vendor machine or on the ticket, expats still have problems trying to take a ride.
Great photos.
Agree with you that pink color makes this line rather…. special.
Like the design of the stations.
Maybe should copy the idea for public Toilets in german U-Banhs.
I find the publicity in the handles a genial idea.
Problem I see for foreigners(western) with ticket and maps is the lack of pinyin or English. Hard for us to read.
Why 15 m frequency? Limits in train signaling system? That is too slow for high density line.
Maybe my company should send an unsolicited offer to Shanghai’s people committee. ;-)
http://www.thalesonline.com/markets/Activities/Ground-Transportation.html
A lovely hello kitty line :)
@caroinlamma, I agree. That can be challenging for expats, and visitors. I am striving to make the metro more accessible for foreigners for many years, and I believe in the future, there will be some changes. All changes takes time, and improvement takes steps.
间隔长，运能差，站台落差大，拥挤不堪，苦不堪言。
Shanghai is running pretty fast in the way it develops, there were only 3 lines two years ago, while today #10 is about to operate now, amazing……
JC
I read your comment about the huge gap on the train and I was wondering a) if there is the same huge gap on Line 8? and b) does this mean that they are using these narrower, smaller capacity trains now because there’s fewer passengers but in coming years when Pudong starts starts developing, that they will replace these narrow trains with bigger 3.0m wide trains? It seems that these stations are designed for much bigger trains. Also, how much longer are these stations than a train? Line 6 uses only 4 cars, is there room for 6 or 8 in these stations?
I am going to visit Expo in May 2010 from Vancouver, Canada and will stay in Holiday Inn Express Wu Jiao Chang . I would like to know
– what are the Metro lines that got public toilets.
– is there a metro map availbale for tourists
– what are the different stations of Line 10
– what are the stations that have connections with other Metro lines
Thanks .
Rebecca Y.P. YIP
Hi JianShuo! Love the bit about use newspaper if you’re desperate ahhaha!
I’m trying to put together a map to mark all toilets on Shanghai metro.
Would you be able to help at all?
Once I’m marked it, I promise to send you a copy!
Thanks and keep up the great work with your blog!
J.