Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

In its efforts to tackle the city's transport bottlenecks, the Shanghai government plans to build eight more metro lines of a combined 389 kilometers over the following seven years.
By 2012, a rail network comprising 13 lines of a total 400 kilometers will be in place.
The move is motivated by the soaring demand for rail transport, as witnessed bt the fact that since 2001 passenger volume on the city's existing three metro lines has jumped more than 10 percent a year and has reached 2 million journeys a day. 
In response, the city commenced construction of line No. 7 this year and sections of the RT No.4 will start trial operation by the year's end, taking the length of local rail lines in service to 122 kilometers. 
To make transit between rail lines more convenient, the city has been speeding up the testing of its ticketing system which enables passengers to use a single ticket whatever the journey. This practice, as well as saving the passengers' time, will save the money of some long-distance commuters.
In the past five years, the metro service operator has raised the frequency of services by a factor of 44 by adding more trains to the lines.