ON OCTOBER 7 Alstom Transport confirmed that it had won a €184m contract to build 28 six-car Metropolis trainsets for the Yangpu metro line in Shanghai. They are due to be delivered between October 2005 and the end of 2007.
Being built by Shanghai Mass Transit Yangpu Line Development Co at a cost of 14·5bn yuan, the 23·4 km Line 8 will have 28 stations. It will run from New Jiangwan City in the Yangpu district north of the city via People's Square to Zhongshan South Road, and then southeast under the river to serve the World Expo 2010 site in Pudong.
Local contractor Shanghai Tunnel Engineering is pushing ahead with civil works, using China's first double-tube tunnel boring machine to excavate the twin tunnels simultaneously. Hong Kong's MTR Corp is providing advisory services to the project owner, Shentong Holdings.
The first Yangpu trainset and bodyshells for the rest will come from Alstom's Barcelona plant, and bogies from Le Creusot. Local assembly is to be undertaken by the Satco joint venture with Shanghai Electric Corp, bringing the local content to around 70%.
Shanghai has ordered nearly 500 Alstom cars for the Pearl, Xinmin and Yangpu lines, and the first trains are now running on the Pearl line. The first Xinmin trains are expected to enter service by the end of this year, when the 17·1 km southern extension of Line 1 with 11 stations is due to open.
- Chinese officials announced on October 4 that around 200bn yuan will be invested in metro construction over the next five years. The government has already approved projects in nine cities, and plans are being drawn up in 11 more for projects totalling more than 850 km. By 2008 the Beijing network is projected to grow to 408 km and Shanghai to 780 km.
