Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai and three neighboring provinces will spend more than 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion) over the next couple of years to build new railway lines and stations, and upgrade existing lines, a local railway official said yesterday.
"It will be the country's biggest ever investment in railways in east China," Liu Lianqing, director of the Shanghai Railway Administration, said yesterday.
The project also includes the construction of new facilities including the under-construction Shanghai South Railway Station, which will be completed by the year's end.
Two of the biggest projects will be built in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, Hefei, Anhui Province and Wuhan, Hubei Province.
A new rail connection will be built between Hefei and Nanjing by 2007, cutting the trip from 312 kilometers to 166 kilometers between the two places.
Another new 351-kilometer connection will link Hefei to Wuhan, replacing the current 565-kilometer link.
Those new lines will also cut the travel time from Shanghai to Hefei and Wuhan.
A train trip from the city to Hefei will only take three hours once the lines are finished, down from the current seven hours, while a trip to Wuhan will take five hours, instead of the current 17 hours.
"The construction of new railway connections will renovate hundreds of existing lines," said Yuan Jiaji, a spokesman for the city's railway administration.
He said the project will involve the construction of dozens of tunnels and bridges over the next few years.
Yuan also said the 200-kilometer fuel-powered Shanghai-Hangzhou railway line will change to handle electric trains over the next few years.
The electric trains are expected to run much faster than current trains, but Yuan wouldn't provide a top speed.
However, officials from the administration declined to comment on whether the project will include the construction of a new maglev line linking Shanghai with nearby Hangzhou.