A center for public transportation security is now open at the People's Square subway station. The center, which will be open daily, from 8am to 8pm, aims to teach its visitors about safety issues on subways and buses. Gas masks, flame proof blankets and other safety related products will be on show. So for those of you wondering if your behavior on the subway has been acceptable, here's your chance to find out. [Source]......

This just in, from Xinhua: At least three people were killed in a bus explosion in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. Monday, according to fire fighters who rushed to the scene. The cause of the explosion is not yet known. Fire fighters estimated that there were about 50 passengers on board the No. 842 Bus, which suddenly exploded en route between the Guoxing Road and Shunguo Road in Yangpu District, to the northeast of Shanghai.......

In the news recently, Shanghai's taxis:"Where's the difficulty in the taxi smoking ban?" The passengers, that's where. Dazhong taxi's "Welcome the World Expo with no smoking in Dazhong taxis!" campaign has stopped taxi drivers from smoking on the job through strict supervision and heavy fines, but drivers are finding the passengers aren't as cooperative: some taxi drivers have even been fined and lost stars due to passengers' complaints of bad service after they were......

A summary of some of the Shanghai public-transportation-related stories making the news lately:The longest ocean-crossing bridge in the world is set to open near Shanghai on May 1. According to the Shanghai Daily, "the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which starts in southern Shanghai and ends in Ningbo, will shorten the trip between the two cities by more than 120 kilometers". Construction on the bridge began in 2003. Nanjing will soon join Beijing in banning foldable bicycles......

A summary of some of the Shanghai public-transportation-related stories making the news lately:An intelligent, wireless signaling and control system already successfully implemented on Lines 6, 8 and 9 will be used for all new lines built between now and the World Expo in 2010, theoretically cutting the lowest time between trains to 90 seconds.According to news reports, the new 3G cellphone network being rolled out in Shanghai has complete coverage on all metro lines and......

Metro news from the local press: The case of the young man who was squeezed to death between the metro train and the glass security doors on the Shanghai Stadium Line 4 platform will begin pretrial procedures tomorrow. The People's Daily has published an overview of new developments in the Shanghai newspaper industry, including a paragraph highlighting the success of the free commuter paper I-Metro Express (I时代报), the only newspaper to be distributed for free......

You may have noticed the above special green signs appearing on new exit gates near subway station exit stiles. What do they mean? Starting on Oct 19, passengers over 70 years of age carrying a social security card with proof of age can ride Shanghai public transportation (bus and metro) for free during off-peak hours. By the end of the year, the Metro company plans to install automatic card readers to quicken the entry process......

In the local press recently: By year's end, the Zhongshan Park Line 2/3/4 interchange station's single intra-station passageway between the Line 2 and Line 3/4 platforms will be joined by a new passageway added to relieve passenger congestion. Since the opening of the Line 2 extension, passenger traffic on Lines 2 and 3 has been grown markedly and the pedestrian traffic during rush hours is almost unbearable. The new passageway will be located on the......

News tidbits from the public transportation world: Maglev hours are being extended to match the operating hours of the Metro Line 2, opening at 6:45am and closing at 9:30pm. In 2005 the high-speed train extended its hours in a bid to snag more passengers; this time the move comes as it rides a new wave of popularity. Shanghai's Dazhong Taxi is following the city of Beijing's footsteps and declaring all of its taxis to be......

The free Metro Express commuter paper has a big front-page spread today on the People's Square metro interchange make-over. The headline announces that "People's Square Three Line Interchange Hall To Open By Year's End", which is old news to those who have been following the progress of the new metro Line 8. Instead, the reason for the story being published today is that the Shanghai Rail Transport Construction Headquarters just released a bunch of numbers......

Two bits of transportation news from random sources: The Xinmin Evening Post reports that the Shanghai Pudong Airport Authority and the Shanghai Mapping Institute will be making free maps of the city available in special racks at the Pudong Airport starting this week, with plans to expand to Hongqiao Airport and the Shanghai Railway Station. The map is the standard Chinese map of Shanghai that you can buy for RMB 6 at bookstores throughout the......

An industry source in this Metrofans thread reveals that internal estimates for the opening date of Metro Line 8 (M8) have moved up to October 31st from the previous estimate of December 28. Line 8 is a north-south line with all but two stops in Puxi. The stops are expected to be named as follows: ▸ 市光路站、嫩江路站、翔殷路站、黄兴公园站、延吉中路站、黄兴路站、江浦路站、鞍山新村站、四平路站、曲阳路站、虹口足球场站、西藏北路站、中兴路站、曲阜路站、人民广场站、大世界站、老西门站、陆家浜路站、西藏南路站、周家渡站、耀华路站 ▸ Shiguang Rd (northern terminal station), Nenjiang Rd, Xiangyan Rd, Huangxing Park, Yanji Middle Rd, Jiangpu Rd, Anshan......

The Shanghai Traffic Bureau has announced that another 100 public bus routes began offering passengers transfer discounts today, on top of the existing 140 discount routes. Public transport card holders will receive a 0.5 yuan discount on their two-yuan fare for air-conditioned buses if they take a second trip on any of the routes involved in the discount scheme within 90 minutes of boarding the first bus. This follows moves in Beijing earlier this year......

The new Line 6 has been dubbed the "Hello Kitty Line". We wonder why ... Line 6 will run from north to south Pudong. Cross-posted at the Shanghai Public Transportation blog.......

A round-up of BBS posts on the Shanghai metro: People's Square concrete drying... and drying... Poster SanNiu British Teacakes noticed yesterday that the yellow metal floor protectors place in front of the glass safety doors on the People's Square Line 1 platform have been moved around as the floor is repaired following the safety door installation process. Line 7 to perform "double crossing" of Suzhou CreekThe Metro Line 7 will perform a over-and-under double crossing......

Would you believe that we get emails fairly regularly from people looking for even the most basic information about the China Baseball League? We wrote a story about the pro league back in 2004, and it's a testament to how little English info about the league exists out there that it's still one of most widely read CBL sources on the internet (it helps that Wikipedia linked to it). And so we have people asking......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

This morning, Chinese language news portal 163.com had a great scoop, and revealed the future planning for Shanghai and China's Maglev railway system. Shanghaiist's Chinese ability is sadly limited, but using the new-fangled internet technology we reported on earlier this week, we were able to get the gist of the 163.com article. The article reveals that the current 30km long section of the Pudong Airport-Longyang Road Maglev line will be extended to eventually form a......

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists. We start with SFist which broke the -ist record for comments with nearly 500 comments on a post about our Mayor's girlfriend. She responded back on charges that she's not a "girl's girl" and, whoo boy-- the floodgates? They did......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the......

We're not sure when the beta version of Google maps for China came out, since we hardly ever use the Chinese version of Google . We saw that it had the little "new" tag affixed to it, and from some searches it seems that it was sometime in February, so not too long ago. This service, located at ditu.google.cn, has replaced Google Local, which was at bendi.google.cn. First off, there's a couple of big differences......

Lots of juicy transportation news today: A new displacement order has been released by the Xujiahui Housing, Land and Resource Administration Bureau which is likely related to work on an extension of the Maglev to Hongqiao Airport.At the ongoing Shanghai People's Congress, representative Lei Guofen submitted a proposal asking that the commercial advertisements after stop names announced on metro cars (including the ubiquitous and therefore infamous Christine Bakery) be replaced by announcments of "public and......

Planning on taking the train in China during Spring Festival? Well, some might ask you how you got your ticket. And others will likely ask why you got your ticket. From the press Press Trust of India: The country can provide more than 2.42 million seats for railway travellers daily, only half the number of daily passenger traffic during the peak season of the Spring Festival, China's traditional New Year Festival. In 40 days starting......

Those of you in the know may have heard that new ticketing machines are making an appearance on the Shanghai Metro system. Yesterday, Shanghaiist passed through the Century Park station and witnessed two new ticket vending machines that include the option to recharge your stored-value card straight from your bank card, unpacked but not yet in use. Awesome. These new machines are being added at selected stations around the city. Also, a big local Party......

Alert web surfers notice that the Shanghai Metro has redesigned their website. The English version is well done, and has some cool "inside" pictures of the subway car storage warehouse. Poster QQme reports columns going up near Pudong airport that suggest work has already begun on the eastern extension of Line 2. Other commenters wonder if this will make the Maglev even more of a white elephant. Poster aabcdefj must be on the inside because......

When we woke up yesterday morning we discovered a new year's surprise: Our beloved shoes are gone. Like many good Chinese girls, we keep our shoes outside our front door (but inside a locked gated corridor ... with metal bars perfect for stealing shoes through, evidently). First we thought we might have just misplaced them (we can be kind of messy). But after searching our pile of shoes, we were very certain they were gone.......

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......

Lots of juicy news items in yesterday's Morning Post: The official government vacation schedule (that is growing less and less relevant as private enterprise expands) for the Western and Chinese New Year has been made public: WW = work days (on weekends) HH = official holiday VV = make-up vacation Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Dec 24 25 26 27 28 29 WW Jan WW HH VV VV 4 5 6 7 8......

When you buy a transportation card in Shanghai (交通卡 or jiao tong ka), you have to make an RMB 30 "deposit". So for example, if you give a RMB 100 note when you buy your card, it will only be credited with RMB 70. According to today's Shanghai Daily, there are 15 million transport cards in use in Shanghai. Yes, that makes RMB 450 million (although China Radio International uses different math) in the pockets......