PVG/SHA | Shanghai Area Airports

[fragel]

Originally Posted by hkhui

But all the Chinese cities have different cards. Can one card be used in another city? If not, I am really surprised that they are not trying to standardise the whole system.

Like if you're driving from one city and parking in another city, you should be able to use the same card.

It is because the cards are issued by individual cities, not a single central ministry. It sounds great to have one card in the country and technically it is not impossible, but it is just not financially feasible. It took years for Shanghai transportation card to be accepted in cities like Wuxi, Hangzhou and Suzhou. The whole Yangtze delta will have all its transportation cards interchangeable by 2012. The trend is that each city still has its own transportation card but eventually can be interchangeable in the country, but that needs time.

[big-dog]

Originally Posted by fragel

Line 20 connecting suburban Qingpu District and Hongqiao Station and line 17 will be built later.
And who knows when the extension of maglev will start--there is supposed to be a maglev station at Hongqiao hub as well.

Definitely, see the title of this thread. The space for maglev line has been there. I'm still keeping my finger crossed for the maglev.

[BarbaricManchurian]

Originally Posted by hkhui

But all the Chinese cities have different cards. Can one card be used in another city? If not, I am really surprised that they are not trying to standardise the whole system.

Like if you're driving from one city and parking in another city, you should be able to use the same card.

I've never seen a nationwide smart card anywhere. In the US all the different cities have their own cards, and so is the case in Europe. Just having a card itself that can be used on bus, subway, ferry, even taxi, is convenient enough for me.

[hkhui]

So China should set an example and standardise it. After all, all Chinese cities use RMB. Maybe the government wants to keep a healthy competition among the card issuers, or they are afraid that one company may have monopoly power.

[Geography]

I've never seen a nationwide smart card anywhere.

Singapore.

[philip]

The scale and quality of the hub is not simply world class, it's Out Of This World !!

[fragel]

the quality is indeed very good, but IMO the hub needs to be finetuned to reach a world class level. Since it is still under construction, we'll have to wait and see.

[davieb55]

Currently in Korea, transit cards work in most (but not all cities), and soon they will be useable nationwide. Also, we can use our credit cards to scan on and off subways and buses in most cities.

[fragel]

Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR Station in final testing phase before opening

The 154 km Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR will be operational in October, making it possible to travel from Shanghai to Hangzhou in 38 minutes.

Waiting Lounge for Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR in Hongqiao Traffic Hub, will open soon
(This is different from the waiting lounge for Shanghai-Nanjing ICL)

Xinhua news photo on Sep 9th.

[fragel]

Originally Posted by davieb55

Currently in Korea, transit cards work in most (but not all cities), and soon they will be useable nationwide. Also, we can use our credit cards to scan on and off subways and buses in most cities.

That would be handy. I think there are more countries with nationwide cards, but for large countries such as China and USA, I doubt if there will be one nationwide card in the near future--maybe credit cards, but not transportaion cards.

[chornedsnorkack]

Originally Posted by fragel

Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR Station in final testing phase before opening

The 154 km Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR will be operational in October, making it possible to travel from Shanghai to Hangzhou in 38 minutes.

Whereas travelling 62 km from Hongqiao to Pudong shall continue to take 99 minutes on Shanghai metro line 2.

[Knuddel Knutsch]

Originally Posted by chornedsnorkack

Whereas travelling 62 km from Hongqiao to Pudong shall continue to take 99 minutes on Shanghai metro line 2.

Thats why its so important that they get started with this stupid maglev train....
Initialley it was supposed to be done in 2010. Now they didnt even start.
As soon as its completed, the travel time between pudong airport and Honqiao airport will be 12-15 minutes....

[urbanfan89]

Originally Posted by BarbaricManchurian

I've never seen a nationwide smart card anywhere. In the US all the different cities have their own cards, and so is the case in Europe. Just having a card itself that can be used on bus, subway, ferry, even taxi, is convenient enough for me.

In some smaller European countries, the national ID card itself is used as the smart card.

[fragel]

Originally Posted by Knuddel Knutsch

Thats why its so important that they get started with this stupid maglev train....
Initialley it was supposed to be done in 2010. Now they didnt even start.
As soon as its completed, the travel time between pudong airport and Honqiao airport will be 12-15 minutes....

Thanks to the NIMBYs backed up by the experts from Ministry of Railways. plus the imprisonment of the former political head who's a big supporter of the maglev project.

I hope they would at least confirm the project after EXPO.

[foxmulder]

Guys among us who can use this monster station after its opening should take lots of pictures and share with us...

[uwhuskies]

Originally Posted by zergcerebrates

What a huge facility. Seems like the materials are pretty good, the only thing i dont like about this airport are those red words on top of the airport. UGH! Why cant they just make it smaller and use black color and stick it to the side of the walls. Its such an eyesore having huge red signs.

I have thought about this many times too. I think its entirely cultural in that many Asian cities have buildings with huge gaudy letters on the side. Maybe its artistic to those who can actually read the words (yeah, an american born chinese who can not read or write any chinese )

My hometown of Seattle has many zoning ordinances against sign size, placement thereof and number of signs on buildings unless they were grandfathered before the law took effect in the early 1980s.

[zergcerebrates]

Originally Posted by fragel

Some recent Hongqiao HSR Station pictures:

Such a big station! I would be so exhausted walking thru the departure area or the corridors, it looks endless.

[ad50939]

A huge railway station for a small airport!!

[big-dog]

the new Hongqiao airport has two runways and two terminals, with annual capacity of 40 million passengers. It's not really "small" though it's the 2nd airport of Shanghai.

[fragel]

Originally Posted by ad50939

A huge railway station for a small airport!!

the airport is not small it was among the world's top 50 busiest airports by passenger traffic last year.

both airports in Shanghai have seen huge increase in passenger traffic due to the EXPO. Shanghai Pudong joined the top 30 for the first half of 2010. With more flights at terminal 2, Hongqiao Airport was able to transport 6 million+ passengers in July only, a 43% increase compared to last year, which shows a even faster pace than PVG's number.