The planned Maglev line from Longyang Road Metro Station to
Hongqiao International Airport has a new route, planners announced
yesterday.
The plan for the new route has been placed on the official
Website of Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau and the
city's environment hotline website, to assess the public's reaction
over the next two weeks.
The new extension part - or as called in the plan a "branch of
the Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Line" - will run 31.8 kilometers,
three kilometers shorter than an earlier plan. The name indicates
that planning for a Maglev line to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is
under way though no details are as yet forthcoming.
The map on the Website shows that the new Maglev line will run
from the Longyang Road Metro Station, through the Bailianjing Area
in Pudong, the entrance for 2010 World Expo site, and travel under
the Huangpu River to reach Puxi.
In Puxi, it will link with the Shanghai South Railway Station
and the Lianhua Road Metro Station before reaching the Hongqiao
station interchange.
In Minhang District in Puxi, the line will run along the Dianpu
River, a tributary of the Huangpu River. In an earlier plan, the
line covered a longer distance.
The Website plan does not talk about the budget for the line or
when work on it will begin. The project headquarters had no
comment.
"The new route will reduce the impact of noise on nearby
residents," Sun Zhang, a professor of rail transport of Tongji
University who participated in the Maglev planning, said
yesterday.
He said the major purpose of the revised route was to keep the
line away from residential areas as much as possible, particularly
the section in Minhang District.
To limit the noise in the downtown area, the speed of trains on
the extension line will be kept to between 200kmh and 300kmh, Sun
said.
The current Maglev runs at a maximum speed of 431kmh over the 30
kilometers between Pudong International Airport and the Longyang
Road Metro Station and takes eight minutes.
He said the Hongqiao station interchange, where the western
terminal is located, will also include the Shanghai-Beijing high
speed terminal.
(China Daily by Wang Ying January 3, 2008)
