Shanghai's Metro Line 8 ready for a weekend start

TRAINS on Metro Line 8 will arrive at 6.5-minute intervals but passengers should be prepared for them to be busy because the trains are smaller, Metro managers said yesterday.

Together with the Metro Line 6 and 9 and two another sections, the first phase of the blue-marked Metro Line 8, totalling 22.4 kilometers, will open to public this weekend.

The line has been keenly awaited by local residents, particularly those in the northeast, because it will enable them to avoid severe congestion on the roads between Yangpu District and central downtown.

"Metro Line 8 is one of the most important artery Metro lines," Wu Xinyi, a publicity official of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, said yesterday.

He said the first phase of the line had 21 stations, linking Shiguang Road in northern Yangpu District to Yaohua Road in Pudong, passing through six downtown districts. There will also be a station near the Pudong entrance of the 2010 World Expo site.

Twenty-eight six-unit Metro trains will be used on the line and the average interval between trains in rush hour will be 6.5 minutes - compared with the three-minute intervals on Metro Line 1 or 2 and 13-minute-intervals on Line 4.

All the trains for Metro Line 8 were produced by a local joint venture with France-based Alstom. Each unit is 2.6 meters wide and can carry 210 passengers compared to the standard train which is three meters wide and can hold 310 passengers.

The smaller trains will thus be more crowded in rush hour, but Metro managers plan to add one more unit to the trains in the near future, officials said.

According to Metro insiders, the city is using the smaller trains to encourage the domestic joint venture companies that produce Metro trains.

Currently, most of the city's Metro trains are made by foreign companies and imported.

Passengers on Metro Line 8 will be able to transfer to Lines 1 and 2 at the People's Square.