The story appears on

Page A3

August 9, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeMetroPublic Services

Cancellations delay city travelers

MORE than 700 flights were cancelled at Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao international airports as of yesterday afternoon with only 27 flights managing to take off and land in the city, the airport authority said.

Officials said nearly 2,000 passengers were at the two airports waiting for their flights to resume.

"I am heading to Inner Mongolia where the typhoon has fewer impacts, so I decided to wait at the Hongqiao airport for my flight to be able to take off again," said a China Eastern passenger surnamed Wang.

China's major airlines had stopped nearly all flights to or from the city by midday.

Hundreds of passengers crowded into Hongqiao Railway Station yesterday, waiting for refunds, after the railway operator decided to stop selling tickets for bullet trains.

The high-speed lines from Shanghai to Hangzhou, Nanjing and Beijing were among the most affected routes.

Passengers would be notified if the bullet train services were to resume today, railway officials said.

On the city's Metro network, passenger volume fell by 33 percent compared to last week. Metro Line 2, which connects the two airports and the railway station at Hongqiao, saw the biggest drop in passenger numbers, officials said.

The Metro operator shut down the service between Metro Line 2's Guanglan Road and Pudong International Airport at noon yesterday.

In the afternoon, a section of Metro Line 6, from Gangcheng Road to Jufeng Road, was shut. Line 3 and Line 9 also had to close part of their routes yesterday after winds blew objects, including rain shelters, onto the track.

Sandbags were used at the entrances of many downtown subway stations, including Jing'an Temple, to prevent flooding.

The Maglev, linking Line 2 to the Pudong airport, also stopped running yesterday afternoon.

On the roads, the highway authority imposed speed limits on local expressways and also closed three bridges at the mouth of the Yangtze River to traffic.

All trams and electric buses in downtown districts were replaced with diesel buses to prevent electrical accidents.

With ferry services halted, traffic police allowed bike and moped riders to use river tunnels instead.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend