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Metros, trains on track to handle Expo flow

Shanghai will boost the number of Metro trains 150 percent and expand railway networks by 2010 to handle the expected 70 million visitors to the city during World Expo.

The city will have about 200 more Metro trains within this year, Ying Minghong, president of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, also a delegate of the National People's Congress, said in Beijing yesterday.

Newly opened lines 6, 8 and 9 are adding cars as well as Line 1 and Line 2, Ying added.

During the Expo, Shanghai will have 200,000 more visitors per day and 400,000 on the busiest days, Ying said. The subway system will be expanded to 400 kilometers by that time and will shoulder nearly half of the flow.

Metro lines 4, 6, 7 and 8 will have a stop at the Expo site, and No. 13 will be the trunk line within the 5.28-square-kilometer Expo site, Ying said.

The Shanghai government invested 30 billion yuan (US$4.22 billion) in Metro line construction each year, Yang said. The Metro will consist of 35 to 40 percent of the city's transportation annually once fully developed.

Also, the Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway will link the two cities before the Expo opens, Wu Qiang, NPC delegate and director of Shanghai Railway Administration, said yesterday.

The 300-kilometer-long rail line will connect six cities in the Yangtze Delta Region and shorten the travel time from Shanghai to Nanjing from three hours to one.

Around 150 pairs of trains are expected to run along the route every day. This figure may reach 200 pairs day during peak periods.

Shanghai will also build a railway station much bigger than Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station, Wu said. The Hongqiao Railway Station combined with Hongqiao Airport will become the city's biggest transportation hub.