China: World's longest metro line opens in Shanghai, total length extends to 813 km

China's biggest city and a global financial hub, Shanghai is going to extend a new driverless and longest metro line on Thursday reported by The Global Times. With the latest inclusion of metro lines, the total length of Shanghai's metro network will extend to 831 km, continuing to be the longest in the world. Apart from making a record of the world's largest metro network, the city will also get two fully driverless metro lines, taking the total number of such automatic lines to five in the city. The fully automatic lines will contribute 167 km to the total length of the metro network established in the city.

"The north section of Shanghai's Line 18 phase 1, which will mainly cover the city's northern Pudong New Area and northeastern Yangpu District, is to debut on Thursday as well," The Global Times quoted the metro official as saying. "Its south section opened last December," added the official.

With the latest inclusion of metro lines, the city will have 20 metro lines with 508 stations. According to the metro official, the new line will connect a few of the popular areas of Shanghai including Jiading, Putuo, Jing'an, Huangpu districts and Pudong New. Apart from connecting some of the vital places of the city, the authorities also informed that the new metro station will provide convenient connectivity to the city's most renowned tourist attractions and landmarks downtown, including Jing'an Temple and Lujiazui.

New metro line to reduce travel time by 80 minutes

Further, the authorities informed that the new metro lines will reduce the travel time by at least 60-80 minutes. "I have been looking forward to metro Line 14 for a long time," a Shanghai resident told the Global Times. "The forthcoming metro line will curtail my commute time from nearly one hour to some 20 minutes," added the resident. It is worth mentioning the Communist government of China has been expanding the infrastructure rapidly in the strategic as well as important locations of the country.

Apart from expanding record metro lines in Shanghai, it has also developed a 122.99-kilometre-long expressway. Among the 122 km expressway, 18 kilometres section goes through the hinterland of Tengger Desert. It is the first desert expressway built in Ningxia, news agency Xinhua reported. 

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