The Metro: New trains, big plans and avoid 中山公园

Browsing the Ditiezu.com (Subway-ers) BBS, we came across some interesting tidbits:

• Rumors say that new Siemens 8-car trains are about to hit the Shanghai metro system on Lines 1 and 2, possibly the 15th of this month or possibly next month. This should do a bit to relieve the currently over-congested 6-car trains. The LCD displays on station platforms are being updated to show the capacity of the next arriving train.
• Tongji University administrative vice-principal, and tunnel and underground engineering expert Li Yongsheng stated in a speech that the subway station at the World Expo site will be built using Chinese architectural elements; will contain massive climate control equipment, plants and lots of windows in order to give passengers the impression that they are walking on the surface of the Earth even when they are underground; and will be built such that passengers will be able to exit the train on both sides, onto a huge underground plaza. Later posters in the same thread remind us that academics tend to allow their visions to stray from the confines of reality, and that as always the city government has the final say.
• Since the opening of the western extension to Line 2, Zhongshan Park station has seen more and more passengers crowd its platform. Stationmaster Mr Wang warns casual passengers to avoid the station during the 7am to 9am morning rush hour when up to 800 passengers can be found standing on the platform at a single time, despite the short 3 minute wait between trains. At times, passengers cannot fit onto the train and have to try for the next one. On Monday, the number of passengers that entered Zhongshan Park station during the morning rush hour reached 10,439, or on average almost 3 passengers a second. One commenter suggests that the station's little-used southern entrance be converted back into a connecting corridor for the Line 3 platform to easy foot traffic congestion.
• Calls are renewed for ticketless transfers between Lines 1 and 3 at Shanghai Railway Station. Now with more passengers than ever due to the Line 3 extension, money and time lost due to the long walk under the train station is growing. Respite will arrive in the form of Line 8, but not until the end of this year. One commenter suggests that a combination of towers, circular escalators like the ones at Yaohan No 1 Department Store, and moving walkways like at Pudong Airport could shuttle passengers from one line to another; other commenters reply that a simple 30 minute grace-period for free transfers between the two ticket gates would suffice.

Cross-posted at the Shanghai Public Transportation blog.