Keolis, through its Chinese joint venture, successfully opened its first section of the Songjiang tram line and welcomed its first passengers. The open section is approximately 8.6 miles, with 20 stations and connects into Shanghai’s existing metro Line 9.

Keolis pioneered the first automated metro line in Shanghai and will soon add to this, with the launch of an automated metro service at Shanghai International Airport.

After being awarded a five-year contract to operate and maintain the Songjiang tram network in August 2018, Shanghai Keolis, the joint-venture between Shanghai Shentong Metro Group and Keolis, undertook the detailed operational preparedness required. This included staff recruitment, formulating rules and regulations, organizational structure, emergency planning, testing of the system, and expertise review.

Songjiang is a suburban district of Shanghai, which counts 1.8 million residents. The initial section of the tram line covers the area from Canghua Road station in the west to Zhongchen Road station in the east which serves residential areas and universities. The tram also connects to Shanghai’s metro line 9, enabling residents in the area to benefit from an integrated shared mobility network, which is efficient and environmentally friendly.

Following the opening of a next section of the network, scheduled in mid-2019, it will then be about 19.2 miles and have 46 stations. In addition, there will be an increase to 30 Citadis trams in total, and with this opening of this section the network is expected to then carry about 170,000 passengers per day.