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Metro president reveals just the ticket for Expo
2010. 5 March
by Zha Minjie
(shanghaidaily.com)
It has been a while coming - and much anticipated - but passengers should be able to buy one-day tickets valid for all Metro lines in Shanghai by the end of this month.
The tickets will entitle commuters to unlimited travel throughout the city for 24 hours.
Ying Minghong, president of Metro operator Shanghai Shentong Group, said yesterday the tickets would be ideal for tourists and residents during the Shanghai 2010 World Expo.
Ying, who is a member of the nation's top advisory body, revealed the ticket tidings on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session in Beijing.
There are now two kinds of tickets for the Shanghai subway, singles and the city's popular public transportation card that also covers taxi, bus and ferry services.
Charges are on a sliding scale, with a ceiling price of 9 yuan (US$1.32) and a minimum of 3 yuan.
The price of the one-day ticket is still under discussion.
"I will accept a price of 10 yuan," said commuter Yao Chengchen, a salesman who takes several lines a day to meet customers.
Metro insiders said the fare was more likely to be closer to 20 yuan.
Shentong said the new ticket would save time, and queuing, during the 184-day Expo when a huge increase in passenger numbers is expected.
More than 70 million people are expected to visit the city during the Expo and traffic authorities estimated in January that about 50 percent of them would use the subway.
The daily Metro passenger turnout will surpass 5 million -up from 4 million - with two new lines scheduled to be up and running.
Also under discussion are two other types of tickets, one formultiple consecutive days andthe other for multiple trips in aset period, according to Ying.
The new tickets will still be available after the Expo ends.
The Metro operator first planned the ticket upgrade two years ago but did not provide detailed drafts.
The reason: fares may change frequently as the city's Metro network expanded rapidly.
Shanghai's subway system is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with plans afoot to make it the biggest by 2012. It now runs 10 lines over about335 kilometers of track.