Line 6 (Shanghai Metro) – Wikipedia

Metro line of the Shanghai Metro

Line 6 is an eastern north–south line of the Shanghai Metro network. It opened on December 29, 2007. The entire line is located in the Pudong New Area. A complete trip between the two end terminals, Gangcheng Road and Oriental Sports Center takes approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. Line 6 has been dubbed the unofficial nickname “Hello Kitty Line” due to its lurid pink livery. The line is colored magenta on system maps.

History[edit]

Shanghai Metro Line 6 opening history
Segment	Commencement	Opened	Length	Station(s)	Name	Investment
Gangcheng Road — South Lingyan Road	31 Oct 2002	29 Dec 2007	31.1 km (19.32 mi)	27	Initial phase	¥12 billion
South Lingyan Road — Oriental Sports Center		12 Apr 2011	1.2 km (0.75 mi)	1	Line 8 & 11 connector project

Controversy[edit]

Like the Lexington Avenue Subway in New York City, passenger traffic has consistently exceeded the designed capacity of the line since its opening and causes severe strain to the services. The planning of Line 6 began in 2000, but real estate development along the proposed line happened faster than anticipated upon the line’s initial opening. Uniquely at the time, a majority of the Line 6 opened in one phase creating a 30-kilometer (19 mi) long corridor overnight. Existing buses were cancelled or diverted simultaneously due to the opening of Line 6, forcing residents along the line to travel by rail transit. This was exacerbated by high initial train headways upon opening as all ordered rolling stock have not been completely delivered. Additionally, the line had relatively short operating hours leading to large number of passengers flooding into the first train.^[2] Line 6 was initially forecasted to carry 105,000 people/day. However the aforementioned factors led to the ridership of the line to exceed 150,000 people/day during the first few days of operation.^[3] Realizing the sheer miscalculation during construction, the municipal government have pledged to add new trains and shorten wait times starting in June 2008. However, Line 6 still suffers severe crowding and delays especially during rush hours with passenger flow growing faster than expected.^[4] In 2012 the busiest section of the line was still running at 133% capacity.^[5] With the opening of Line 12 the Shanghai Metro advises passengers divert to the new line to relieve crowding.^[6] The line was built to accommodate light metro narrow-bodied “C size” trains with 4 carriages each, which is not interchangeable with wide-body “A size” trains with 6 to 8 carriages on other Shanghai Metro lines. This difference in loading gauge has made it impractical to upgrade the line to higher capacity “A size” trains to relieve demand. The platform length (especially at underground stations) has made it impractical to upgrade the line to accommodate more carriages.

Stations[edit]

Service routes[edit]

Important stations[edit]

Future expansion[edit]

There are no plans to extend the line.

Station name change[edit]

Headways[edit]

Shanghai Metro Line 6 headway[10]
Time		Gangcheng Road – Jufeng Road	Jufeng Road – Gaoqing Road	Gaoqing Road – Oriental Sports Center
Monday – Friday (Working Days)
AM peak	7:20–9:00	About 2 min		About 4 min
Off-peak	9:00–16:30	About 9 min	About 4 min and 30 sec	About 9 min
PM peak	16:30–19:00	About 3 min and 45 sec	About 2 min and 30 sec	About 3 min and 45 sec
Other hours		About 10 min – 12 min	About 5 min – 6 min	About 10 min – 12 min
Saturday and Sunday (Weekends)
Peak	8:30–20:30	About 10 min	About 3 min and 20 sec	About 10 min
Other hours		About 10 min – 12 min	About 5 min – 10 min	About 10 min – 12 min

Technology[edit]

Signalling[edit]

Rolling Stock[edit]

The designed speed of the train is 80 km/h, the length (Type A carriages are longer at 23 meters) is 19.49 meters (Tc)/19.44 meters (Mp, M), and the width (Type A carriages are wider at 3.0 meters) is 2.6 meters.

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  06C01 train on the left and 06C02 train on the right

References[edit]