ExploreMetro and DearPassengers come together to bring you all the latest China metro news

We’re pleased to announce a collaboration with David Feng of Dear Passengers. David Feng has been “underground” in the Beijing Subway since the opening of Beijing Line 5 in October 2007, and has gone “overground” onto the high speed railways and clocked in close to 50,000 km on the high speed rails! Amongst several other projects, he runs Dear Passengers, which provides news and updates on China’s High Speed Railways and metros. We’ll be cross-posting some of the best of David’s content here on the ExploreMetro blog. Together we plan to provide you with the best metro coverage in China, bar none!

Stay tuned for more coverage from ExploreMetro.com and DearPassengers.com

Beijing Subway Line 9 set for December opening: and two new extensions!

The Beijing Subway will be getting longer with the opening of 3 new sections at the end of December 2012. David Feng wrote a good summary of the new lines over at City Weekend.

The good news is that Line 8 is reopening with a longer northern extension towards Huilongguan, interchanging with Line 13 at Huoying. Line 15 is also extended, and there’s a brand new Line 9 which connects the Fangshan Line to Beijing West Railway Station. Line 9 and the Fangshan Line are still isolated from the rest of the subway system: you’ll need to take a bus from Beijing West Railway Station to Military Museum station on Line 1.

Here’s a map highlighted the newly opened lines: click to expand. Look out for updated versions of our interactive subway map and Beijing Subway iPhone app when the new lines open.


Tickets, please! Turn your old travel tickets into art

Do you have a stash of old tickets at home? Would you like to contribute to an amazing new artwork that will become part of a major exhibition?

Subway
Creative Commons License photo credit: bfishadow

The London Transport Museum is looking for used travel tickets to feature in their upcoming exhibition ‘Mind the Map: inspiring art, design and cartography’, which opens next year. This includes tickets for boat, train, bus, air travel and more.

Exploring the theme of transport maps and mapping, the exhibition will include historic and contemporary maps, whilst exploring the future of mapping, and will include newly commissioned artworks by Stephen Walter, Simon Patterson, Jeremy Wood, Claire Brewster and Helen Scalway.

Another artist featured is Susan Stockwell, whose work often uses of themes of maps and mapping, transforming recycled materials from everyday objects into beautiful artworks.

On this occasion Susan will be experimenting with used transport tickets to create a large-scale world map. The artwork will also explore the role of tickets as a memory or symbolic representation of a journey.

The Museum is currently working with Susan to collect used transport tickets from as many types of travel, of various, and from as many countries and timespans as possible. She is also collecting stories and memories related to the tickets, which are often kept as souvenirs or memento.

Please send any tickets and stories to:
Michelle Brown
London Transport Museum
39 Wellington Street
London
WC2E 7BB
michelle dot brown at ltmuseum dot co dot uk

 

Help test our new tips and maps feature on iPhone/iPad

Do you enjoy using our iPhone/iPad metro maps? We’ll soon be launching version 6.0 of our apps, with some great new features:

  • A new “tips” feature with handy hints near metro stations, like nearby bus routes and tourist attractions
  • Faster loading and lower memory for the map, which should help on older devices.

We’re looking for around 20 people to become beta testers for new versions of our apps! What this means is, before we launch new versions to the public, you’ll get a chance to try out the new version, give your feedback on new features, and let us know about any problems you had.

We’d be really grateful for the help! If you want to take part, it’s simple:

  1. Sign up at http://tflig.ht/rLDjxM
  2. We’ll contact you next time we have an app we need to test with further instructions.

The Beach Express: Shanghai Metro Line 22 to Jinshan set for December opening

Shanghai Metro Line 22 will connect Shanghai South Railway Station with Jinshan, home of the closest sandy beach to downtown Shanghai. Not that it will likely be beach-going weather when the line opens in late December, 2011.

UPDATE: the Jinshan Railway finally opened in September 2012!

Jinshan Beach

The new line will have 9 stations, connecting with Line 1 and 3 at Shanghai Railway Station, and Line 1 and Line 5 at a new transport hub at Xinzhuang in Minghang District. The line then heads south into Songjiang and Jinshan Districts. The stations, from north to south:

  • 上海南站 Shanghai South Railway Station (interchange with Line 1 and Line 3)
  • 莘庄 Xinzhuang (interchange with Line 1 and Line 5)
  • 春申 Chunshen
  • 新桥 Xinqiao
  • 闵西 Minxi
  • 叶榭 Yexie
  • 亭林 Tinglin
  • 阮巷 Ruanxiang
  • 金山 Jinshan
The line is 56.4km long. There will be some direct trains which travel the line in 30 minutes, while trains stopping at every station will take 50 minutes. Trains will travel at up to 160km/h on the new line, over twice as fast as on regular metro lines.

Seoul Metro DX Line opens

The “Sinbundang Line” or “DX Line” has opened to the public in Seoul. The line provides a quick route from Gangnam station to the Bundang area, taking a more direct route than the Bundang Line. It’s colored red on the map below.

Chris Backe has some handy hints about the new line. We’ve submitted an update to our Seoul Metro iPhone app and it should be available soon!

Beijing Line 8 temporarily closes, extended version to open soon

Beijing Subway Line 8 has been temporarily closed. The current four-station line runs from Beitucheng through the Olympic Green to
South Gate of Forest Park. Don’t panic, the reason for the closure is the impending opening of Line 8, phase 2! The second phase, scheduled to open in late December, will extend the line to the north, with additional interchanges with the Changping Line and Line 13. The full list of new stations is listed below.
  • Zhuxinzhuang 朱辛庄 (Changping Line)
  • Pingxifu 平西府
  • Huoying 霍营 (Line 13)
  • Xisanqi 西三旗
  • Xisanqi South 西三旗南
  • Yongtai 永泰
  • Lincui Lu 林萃路
  • South Gate of Forest Park 森林公园南门
  • Olympic Green 奥林匹克公园
  • Olympic Sports Center 奥体中心
  • Beitucheng 北土城 (Line 10)

Singapore Circle Line extension opens October 8

The Singapore MRT’s Circle Line new extension will open tomorrow, October 8. The new stations extend the line from Marymount to Harbourfront where you can interchange with the North-East Line. There’s another new interchange at Buona Vista with the East-West Line.

An update for our Explore Singapore MRT map is now available on the iTunes App Store. It’s a free update for all users who have purchased the app in the past! Our online map www.exploresg.com has also been updated with the new stations.

Note this is a beta release – we don’t yet have some information for the new stations, such as first/last train times and journey costs. We’ll provide a new update as soon as we get this information added.