CHINA: The total length of the Shanghai urban rail network reached 831 route-km with the inauguration of the city’s fifth fully-automated metro line on December 30.
Running entirely underground, the 39·1 km Line 14 runs across the heart of the city, linking Fengbang in the western district of Jiading to Guiqiao Rd in the east. It has 31 stations, of which 13 are interchanges. The project was approved by the Shanghai Municipal Development & Reform Commission in 2014, and construction began in November 2016. According to local media, the total cost of the line was 57·7bn yuan.
Designed as a high-capacity route, Line 14 is operated by a fleet of 49 eight-car Type A trainsets manufactured by CRRC Nanjing Puzhen. These 3 m wide trains are 185·6 m long and can each carry 2 480 passengers. The initial headway is 3 min 20 sec at peak times, falling to a 10 min interval in the evenings and weekends.
December 30 also saw the opening of a 20·1 km extension of Line 18 from Yuqiao to South Changjiang Rd, adding another 19 stations including nine interchanges to take the total length of the GoA4 driverless line to 44·9 km.
Line 18 is operated by 50 six-car Type A trainsets supplied by CRRC Zhuzhou. A further 7 km extension to the northwest is envisaged.
In less than 30 years since Shanghai’s first metro line opened in May 1993 the city has completed 20 lines serving 508 stations, of which 83 are interchanges. The five fully-automated lines alone have a combined length of 167 km.
