Results tagged “transport”

Under debate right now at the city transportation bureau: whether taxi fees need to be rejiggered. According to Xinmin, the bureau is considering abolishing the “night time fee” since low demand and strong supply was causing passengers to negotiate directly with drivers for lower fares. Instead, they would consider increasing fees during rush hours - a sort of “peak time fee” instead - that would hopefully help decrease demand for taxis during the most crowded parts of the day. The bureau said that since new regulations will effect everybody, they would conduct comprehensive feasibility studies before passing anything.

In this news report from Hunan TV, police opened the luggage compartment of a crowded long-distance bus bringing passengers eager to return home for the Spring Festival and found a huge surprise -- eight people were hidden inside, tucked inconspicuously behind suitcases and packages. With buses and trains fully booked out, and legal tickets hard to come by, some entrepreneurial Chinese bus drivers are welcoming the opportunity to make a quick buck from those desperate enough to get home in time. One young man that was caught in the luggage compartment told reporters that nobody forced them to do this and they were more than willing to travel this way. [h/t Youku Buzz]

The West Nanjing Road Metro station is earmarked to be the interchange for lines 12 and 13 by 2012, reports xinmin.cn and Shanghai Daily:

 

Like we told you, the new Terminal at Pudong Airport opened smoothly* yesterday morning, bringing relief to crowded Terminal 1 and a whole stack of new shopping and eating options to those flying from the new building.

All ye lucky yuletide souls whose employer's lack of the Scrooge gene has enabled ye to escape Shanghai over the Xmas break, rejoice! Those of you flying back into China after January 1 no longer need to fill in that pesky health declaration form. Although Shanghaiist kind of enjoyed the pre-landing self-diagnosis ritual. Just how many avian flu carrying fowl had we fraternized with over the past month? And could the hail of sputum from the guy sitting next to us develop into full-blown SARS? These questions, along with which fellow passenger to scrounge a pen off, took our thoughts away from the strip of tarmac hurtling at horrific speed towards our plunging aircraft. According to the national quarantine watchdog and civil aviation regulator (quoted in The Guardian), "The move aims to simplify immigration procedures and improve efficiency." Dunno how this would have any affect on queues, seeing as people fill out the forms in-flight, though apparently from from February 1, people with no goods to declare won't have to fill in customs forms when leaving or arriving in China, which may speed things up slightly, judging from the confusion over said forms we've witnessed at Pudong International.

Photo from Jake in Shanghai

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 on the new station, as well as a map of the planned station layout. Among the numbers:

The Shanghai Construction and Transport Management Commission ordered a safety check in the 2,300 glass-walled high-rises in the city yesterday after a huge glass panel fell from the 36th floor of Citic Square last July, injuring two pedestrians.

Live in Shanghai is split up into four major sections -- Fast Facts, Transport, Housing and, of course, Miscellaneous -- and also includes plenty of interactive features, like the "Dress up the Cabs" animation pictured above. The Shanghai Metro Map isn't too shabby, either.

Here's the good news: Shanghai is reportedly going to ban the use of heavily polluting vehicles between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. The restrictions will go into place starting February 15.

Considering the situation on Shanghai's roads outlined earlier by Shanghaiist, it's no wonder that parking a car in this city can be a tough assignment. It almost requires emulating the feats of Cadet Mahoney (Steve Guttenburg) in that immortal scene from Police Academy: