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.

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:

• Times for transferring between lines are now much more accurate. Fascinating fact: the longest walk between platforms is between line 2 and lines 3/4 at Zhongshan Park (about 4mins 30secs walk). The shortest is between line 4 and line 8 at South Xizang Road (30 seconds). I know, I timed it.
• Timing for the shuttle bus between line 3 at Yishan Road and line 9 at Guilin Road is now more accurate
• The journey times now include approximate waiting times at the initial and interchange stations; for example although line 1 trains arrive every 3-4 minutes, line 9 trains arrive only every 14 minutes
• The routeplanner will now only suggest changing at Shanghai Railway Station (and hence buying a second ticket) if it will save you at least 10 minutes in total journey time over an alternative route.
• Various special cases are dealt with more sensibly. For example, if you try and plot a route from Hongkou Stadium (line 3) to Hongkou Stadium (line 8) the routeplanner will suggest walking!

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!

ExploreShanghai is growing in popularity! On the 10th January for the first time there were over 10,000 visits in a day.

Thanks for all the many emails and blog posts with suggestions for improving the metro map , I will endeavour to reply to everyone once I have recovered from a lousy cold. In particular, in the next two months you can expect:

• An improved routeplanner with accurate times for changing lines
• Zooming of the map so you can see (and print) the whole map on a single page
• Other exciting and secret features 🙂

Thanks to the many people who pointed out that the metro map route planner didn’t work too well for journeys via Shanghai Railway Station or Hongkou Stadium. For example, it often makes sense to change between lines 1 and 3 at Shanghai Railway Station, even though this involves buying a second ticket.

The good news is this is now reflected in the journey planner: it will show the price of both parts of the journey where appropriate:

In addition, there are now more accurate journey times and first train/last train information for the new Line 6.

The metro map now has the up to date 2008 prices for all journeys between every pair of stations on the network. Prices range from 2RMB up to 9RMB depending on distance.

To check the price of a journey, just drag your mouse between any two stations. A panel will appear showing the price and estimated journey time.