The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the longest high-speed railway in the world, officially opens today. The event is a new chapter in the history of Shanghai's railway system. "It is a milestone for Shanghai railway," said Gu Jianming, who currently works in Shanghai Railway Station and has spent much of his life working on railways in Shanghai. 

Starting from July 1, around 90 trains will run on high-speed railways between Beijing and Shanghai daily, among them, 73 will depart from Shanghai's newest station, Hongqiao Railway Station, making the station the busiest railway hub in the city.

With several high-speed railway lines, including the Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou lines and the newly opened Shanghai-Beijing line, 195 high-speed trains will depart from Hongqiao daily, which will account for more than half of all trains arriving and departing in Shanghai.

Around 53 percent of all trains in Shanghai will be high-speed trains.

Before Hongqiao Railway Station was built, Shanghai had three major railway stations, Shanghai Railway Station in Zhabei district, Shanghai South Railway Station in Xuhui district and Shanghai West Railway Station in Putuo district.

Currently another railway station is being planned for Pudong New Area, which aims to be the city's largest transportation hub in the east.      

Many experts and citizens wonder whether Shanghai can support such a vast railway network and whether businesses around established stations, such as Shanghai South Railway Station, will suffer after train lines are diverted to new stations.

Station four

Construction on the Hongqiao Railway Station commenced in July 2008 and was completed in July 2010. The project cost more than 15 billion yuan ($2.32 billion). It occupies 1.3 million square meters, an area three times the size of Tiananmen Square in Beijing - the world's largest city square. It was designed to be part of the Hongqiao transportation hub, the biggest comprehensive transportation hub in east China containing an airport, railway station, long-distance bus station, city bus station and subway station. Hongqiao Station is designed to serve 335 trains daily and hopes to serve 78 million passengers annually by 2030.  

Shanghai West Railway Station, a century-old railway station in Putuo district, was demolished in 2009. Around 4 billion yuan was spent rebuilding it into a new high-speed railway station last July. "Shanghai is entering the era of high-speed railways," Gu said proudly.

The new Hongqiao Station was built only four years after Shanghai South Railway Station opened. Shanghai South Railway Station was built in the city's southwestern corner in 2006, it cost 5 billion yuan and was designed to serve 60 trains daily and 15 million passengers annually.

An architect surnamed Yang from East China Architectural Design and Research Institute, who designed the South Station, told the Global Times that when they designed the station 10 years ago, the concept of high-speed rail had not been mentioned in China at all. "The South Station was designed to be part of a world-class transportation hub," Yang said, a very similar concept that Hongqiao Station has today.

"The initial idea for the new South Station is to divert passengers who were traveling to southern parts of China so that it could ease the burden of the increasing passenger flow for Shanghai Railway Station which is located north," Wang Lushan, an officer from the publicity department of South Station told the Global Times.

However, the importance of South Station now has rapidly shifted to the newly built Hongqiao Station. "At peak season last year, we had around 90,000 passengers daily, but now we only have 30,000 after Hongqiao Station opened last October," Wang said.

Previously, all high-speed trains heading south to cities such as Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province and Changsha in Hunan Province departed from South Station. But since last October when the newly-built Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway opened, all high-speed trains were moved to Hongqiao.

"A link railway between South Station and Hongqiao Station was supposed to be finished by the time the newly-built Hongqiao Station and the Hangzhou-Shanghai high-speed train line opened last October so that passengers could freely choose to take trains from Shanghai Railway Station, South Station or Hongqiao Station. But somehow, it remains unfinished and therefore South Station was excluded from serving all high-speed trains which depart from Shanghai to southern China," Wang said.

When the Global Times reached Shanghai Railway Bureau, Chen Wanjun, the spokesman of the bureau failed to give a reason to explain why the link railway wasn't finished on time. "It is still under construction and expected to be finished by early next year," he added.

Less business

For South Station, this change not only means a decline in passengers, but a decline in business for a bustling commercial area, which has built up around the station. "Because passengers who take high-speed trains usually spend more, their loss is also bad news for businesses here," said Wu Huiqiang, general manager of the South Railway Station Business Management Center. Wu is in charge of attracting and managing business investment projects at Shanghai South Railway Station. By the end of 2010, hundreds of restaurants, stores and other businesses had opened around the station.

"You could barely find a seat in our restaurant at this time of a day and most passengers could only take away their food to eat on the train. But now as you can see, we have plenty of empty seats," a woman surnamed Su, who manages a Chinese dumpling restaurant at the station said. Su said their daily turnover has dropped by more than half compared to the same time last year.

According to the official website of the business management center, two major shopping malls have been built since 2007, which were located at the station's south and north underground areas. "We are planning to build a shopping center nearby the South Station commercial area, making it the biggest discount outlet center in downtown Shanghai," Wu Huiqiang said in Oriental Morning Post.

An officer from the Shanghai Railway Bureau, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times that the reality is that the resources of South Station will be left vacant and unused.

More planning

Sun Zhang, professor from the Railway Research Department at Tongji University told the Global Times that the planning and construction of a major civil project like a railway station should be considered carefully before being put into action. "Is it truly necessary to build so many high-cost high-speed railway stations so fast in Shanghai?" Sun asked. "We should ask ourselves: do we have a problem in overlapping investment or even wasting money in railway construction?"

Meanwhile, Wu Youying, deputy chairman of the Shanghai People's Political Consultative Conference said that she strongly recommends that the government carefully consider the effects of the rapid and huge investment and construction for high-speed railway lines in recent years. "Billions of yuan in tax payers' money was invested in a project to serve the public but the public's opinions were not sought. It's improper," Wu said.

Wu Mengling, an expert from the high-speed railway construction team of the Shanghai Railway Bureau said the new Hongqiao Railway Station will benefit long-term social and economic development. "The convenience brought by high-speed trains is obvious," he said.

Wu Mengling added for an international metropolis like Shanghai, three to four railway stations are acceptable. And in the future, all stations will play a different function. Shanghai Station and South Station will mainly be responsible for normal trains while Hongqiao Station will mainly run high-speed trains. "Even from the perspective of energy saving and environmental protection, high-speed rail is worth promoting since it is much more environmentally friendly than other transport,"said Wu, adding the energy cost per person per kilometer for taking train is 10 times less than taking a plane.

Fang Xiuhong, a political advisor from the Shanghai Committee of China Zhi Gong Party, said that authorities should reduce the vacancy rate of railway stations by increasing the amount of passengers. "A practical way is to adjust and improve the schedules and distribution at different stations to meet different groups of passengers to reduce a waste in resources," Fang said.

Shanghai's railway history
The very first commercial railway in China, Wusong Railway, along with the first railway station, was located on what is known today as Qipu Road and Henan Road North in Hongkou district. It was built in 1876 by British businessmen. It was later demolished by the Qing government in 1877.

In 1909, the Qing government built two railway stations called Shanghai North Railway Station and Shanghai East Railway Station. In 1987, the local government shut down the North Station and rebuilt the East Station. Today the East Station is known as the Shanghai Railway Station in Zhabei district.

In 2006, Shanghai South Railway Station was built in Xuhui district to serve trains heading south. In 2010, Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station opened to specifically serve high-speed trains.