On July 19th Beijing got three new subway lines: line 8, line 10 and the Airport Express. Details of all the new lines are on the ExploreBeijing subway map. Changes in the latest version:
According to Beijing city blog Beijingologist, the new line 8, line 10 and Airport Express will open this week! A date has been announced as “pre-July 20, 2008″… after several delays let’s hope it’s for real this time.
You can see the routes of the new lines on the interactive ExploreBeijing subway map.
The ExploreBeijing subway map now supports route planning. Simply drag your mouse between two stations to see an estimate for the time needed for the journey (including changes, and time spent waiting for trains).
Note that unlike on the Shanghai metro, all journeys cost a flat 2RMB. The new Airport Express line costs 25RMB! As with other features on explorebj.com, there may be some inaccuracies during the “beta” period, do get in touch if anything looks wrong!
The exact timings for the new lines (Line 8, Line 10 and the Airport Express) won’t be confirmed until later this month when the lines open.
Two big announcements today!
The Shanghai metro map has been redesigned based on your feedback. It now uses clearer fonts and colors, there’s a handy legend for identifying which line is which, and route-planning has been made more intuitive. To plot a route, just drag between two stations, and a grey arrow will preview which stations you are connecting.
Secondly, I’m pleased to announce the first “beta” version of the ExploreBeijing subway map at www.explorebj.com. You can use the “other cities” link in the top tabs to switch city. The ExploreBeijing map isn’t yet complete, notably:
If you’ve got any feedback, please get in touch! info@exploreshanghai.com
The Shanghai metro map has had a minor update. It now uses the latest (June 2008) price grid for calculating the price of a route. The first and last train times have also been updated to be more accurate.
A quick piece of trivia for you: the longest possible journey between two stations on the Shanghai Metro is the roughly two and a half hour trip between Gangcheng Road (Line 6) and Songjiang Xincheng (Line 9). On the bright side, it will only cost you 9 RMB!
The metro map has been updated with the latest changes described in the previous article Longer opening times and more transfers.
In particular, you can see the longer opening times on several lines (to see the first/last trains from a station, simply click on the circle for that station).
Also, the new “virtual transfers” have been added to the routeplanner. The routeplanner always chooses the fastest route, including time taken to walk between platforms, so it will only recommend a virtual transfer if it will save you time!
Micah Sittig reports on changes to the Shanghai metro starting June 1st. There are three main changes
Firstly, lines 1, 4, 5, 6 and 9 will get slightly longer opening times. Hurrah!
Secondly, at three stations: Hongkou Football Stadium, Shanghai Railway Station and Yishan Road, there will be a new ‘virtual transfer’ option. These stations previously featured in the post Hall of shame: the interchanges that aren’t, since at these stations in order to change lines, it is necessary to leave the station, take a long walk, re-enter the station and buy a new ticket. Now, passengers with a Shanghai Public Transportation card will be able to transfer between the separated platforms without paying for an extra ticket. Hurrah! The long walk will remain.
Thirdly, elderly passengers with special cards will be able to travel at off-peak hours for free. Hurrah!
The ExploreShanghai metro map will receive an update soon to reflect the new interchanges and timings. There will be a new post on this blog when the update goes live.
If you like using the ExploreShanghai metro map you’ll be pleased to know that new metro maps for Beijing and Guangzhou are in the works.
You can expect all the features from the Shanghai metro map, including a comprehensive route planner, station names in English and Chinese and pronounciations of all stations
The Beijing Subway map will be available later this year at explorebj.com
The Guangzhou Metro map will be available at exploregz.com
The metr0 map now has an improved search facility. Rather than choosing a station from a dropdown list, you can just type the first few letters of the station you’re looking for. Here’s an example searching for “zho”.
Click on any of the search results and the map will zoom to the station. It even works in Chinese, just enter the first characters of the station name you’re looking for.
Bonus tip: search faster using the keyboard. Use F3 to jump to the search field, then use the arrow up/down keys to highlight results and press ENTER to zoom there.
The route-planner on the metro map has just had an upgrade! The suggested routes should now be more logical, and the estimated times more accurate.
The gory details:
Of course, no routeplanning can be perfect since the best route and time taken for a journey is affected by many factors. If you have feedback on the routeplanner, or suggestions for improvements, please get in touch!