Shanghai ready to resume operation of four subway lines

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Staff members of four subway lines in Shanghai are fully prepared for resumption starting from Sunday, with disinfection and equipment check carried out.

The subway routes are Line 3, Line 6, Line 10 and Line 16, some of which link the metropolis's train stations and the downtown areas. The operation time of metro trains on the four lines will be from 7 am to 8 pm, and each train will run about 20 minutes apart, Shao Weizhong, vice-president of Shanghai Shentong Group, the city's metro operator, told media on Saturday.

He said employees have conducted several tests and preparation for the resumption since mid-May, adding that other lines are also being tested to be ready to resume the service.

At 10 am on Saturday, China Daily arrived at Hongqiao Road Station on Line 3, finding that a venue QR code that shows passengers' health condition and record their transport routes was already posted on walls of the metro station's entries, exits and security check areas.

Apart from wearing face masks and receiving a body temperature test, passengers will also need to scan the code to provide a nucleic acid test result taken within 48 hours, according to Fan Mingtao, deputy manager of the Shanghai Metro's No 1 operation cooperation.

Wei Lei, who is responsible for subway Line 3 from the Shanghai Metro's No 3 operation cooperation, said: "The QR code is posted in different sites of the station, so as to help passengers maintain social distance."

"If passengers are found lining up over 20 meters at entries, we'll ask more workers to keep social distance and accelerate the code verification to increase the speed of entering the subway," he said.

Given some passengers will transfer to Line 10 to the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station from Line 3, "workers of the two lines have been required to exchange information in a timely manner to avoid crowds," he added.

He underlined that passengers with normal health code and body temperature will be allowed to take subway, "or we won't force people going to the railway station to additionally show train tickets."

But he said they will tell passengers not to gather in the railway station through loudspeaker in metro trains.

Besides, every station on Line 3 has set up a temporary quarantine site. "If someone's health code is found abnormal, he or she will be taken to the site to wear protective clothes," he said. "Meanwhile, we'll register his or her information and contact the Shanghai Municipal Center For Disease Control and Prevention."

"After such passengers are transferred, disinfection will be fully conducted," he added.

Such a quarantine site has also been established in stations on other subway lines, according to Shao.

Before the latest wave of COVID-19 outbreak, Shanghai metro trains were disinfected once a day, but since April, the disinfection frequency has become twice a day.

Shao said the disinfection of 505 subway stations, 30 bases and eight control centers as well as all metro trains and their air conditioning filters had been completed by the end of April.

Now, trains and stations are undergoing daily preventive disinfection in accordance with the epidemic control requirements, he said.

Wei told media that staff members for the resumption on Line 3 have all received a 24-hour health monitoring, with negative nucleic acid and antigen test results. He added, "We're ready to resume the service."

As the city's four metro lines are on standby, a total 273 local bus routes will also be reopened from Sunday, mainly connecting key venues for residents' essential needs, such as airports, railway stations, subways and hospitals in central areas, said Lu Haiwei, deputy manager of Shanghai Jiushi Bus Group.

Among the routes, 111 inter-district bus lines are operated by the company. Passengers are required to hold negative nucleic acid reports taken within 48 hours before boarding the bus and to register place codes online, which identify names of the stations people get on and off and other basic information for accurate epidemiological investigation in emergencies, Lu said.

All buses will go through strict disinfection and staff members will take nucleic acid and antigen tests before work every day, Lu added.