Class C cars In 1999,
Shanghai Electric and
Alstom Metropolis signed an agreement to invest 28 million US dollars to establish Shanghai Alstom Transportation Equipment Co., Ltd., and introduce a rail transit train production line in
Minhang, which would be able to assemble 300 trains annually. Shanghai Alstom only had the national license to produce C-class cars from its establishment and no license to produce A-class cars. At that time, the municipal government stipulated that Shanghai would purchase 300 C cars produced by the new company on lines
5,
6, and
8 of the future rail transit construction. The two parties reached an agreement on the purchase of 300 cars at that time. For this reason, the Transportation Research Institute had to "reduce" the predicted passenger flow to accommodate the C-class railcars, allowing for a reduction of the station's civil construction scope for the smaller trains. In the construction of lines
5,
6, and
8, the railcars were not supplied by the completion of the tender, but by a signed agreement for the railcars after "internal consultation and coordination" between Shentong Group and Shanghai Alstom, a violation of Articles 3 and 4 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Tendering and Bidding. The person in charge of the passenger flow forecasting project of
line 8 confirmed that the passenger flow forecast report of line 8 was not completed until 2005 after continuous revision. However, in 2003 an agreement was signed for line 8 to supply 168 C-class vehicles, i.e., Shentong Group signed an agreement with Shanghai Alstom two years before the release of the forecast report, and decided to use the C-class car. At that time, it was predicted that the forecast passenger flow of line 8 would be about 500,000 passengers per day during the three years from 2007 to 2010. The operator used as initial forecast passenger flow of only 200,000 passengers per day. Line 8 was extremely congested upon opening, even leading to physical conflicts between passengers. In 2010, to deal with the overcrowding, Shanghai Metro hired
passenger pushers to assist commuters boarding line 8 trains. Today, line 8 carries up to over 1 million passengers a day. The estimated passenger flow of
Line 6 was more than 105,000. However, the highest passenger flow in the first few days of opening reached 150,000. With a headway of 13.5 minutes at opening and only four carriages, during peak hours people had to wait 45 minutes to get a ride. The relevant departments did not conduct a comprehensive survey of the residents around the proposed line to estimate passenger flow but instead household registration data was used which excludes migrant populations.
Other controversies In June 2012, Shanghai Metro published a post on Weibo asking women to wear more clothing in public. The post argued that it was not surprising for women to be harassed in the subway if they are wearing revealing clothing and called on women to cherish themselves. This post attracted backlash from women's rights advocates and feminists who called the post
misogynistic.
Train collisions and incidents • March 24, 2004: An evening crash at the turnaround line north of
Tonghe Xincun station occurred during testing of the north extension of the
line 1 (which opened on December 28, 2004), set 122 had a sideswipe with set 102, resulting in car 92113 damaged beyond repair. In 2007, the damaged car was replaced with a new car. Details of the crash have not yet been released. • December 22, 2009, at 5:58 a.m., an electrical fault in the tunnel between
South Shaanxi Road station and
People's Square station caused a few trains to stall. The tripping failure of the power supply catenary was caused by the top of the tunnel falling down and causing a short circuit. The segment between and was suspended. At 6:54 a.m., while the track was under repair, a low-speed collision occurred between two trains on
line 1 at . As train set 0150 went to the Shanghai railway station's turnaround, the signalling system sent a speed code of 65 km/h instead of 20 km/h. This resulted in insufficient braking distance as the distance between set 0150 and set 117 was only 118 meters when the signal system sent a code of a speed of 0 km/h. As train set 0150 increased speed from 60.5 km/h to 62 km/h, the train driver commenced emergency braking, preventing a more serious collision. The train collided at a speed of 17 km/h with the side of the rear of set 117 entering the turnaround track from the down platform in the reverse direction. Nobody was injured, but the cars 013151, 98033 and 98042 were badly damaged. There were no passengers aboard set 117. Service resumed at 11:48 a.m. Some passengers on set 0150 were in the train until 11 a.m. The crashes affected millions of morning commuters and occurred during
Dongzhi Festival, when people visit cemeteries to pay tribute to their departed ancestors.At 8.40 p.m. another crash occurred and the - section was suspended again. A fire broke out at the substation in , due to a transformer failure caused by fluctuations in the power supply of the external network. • July 27, 2011, in the evening, after a train of
line 10 was sent from station, it was supposed to be sent to station (branch line), but it was sent to by mistake, and then stopped at the station for passengers going to station to disembark. The Shanghai Metro claimed that the incident was caused by "signal debugging failure". • September 27, 2011, at 2:51 p.m., two trains on
line 10 collided between
Yuyuan Garden station and
Laoximen station, injuring 284–300 people. Initial investigations found that train operators violated regulations while operating the trains manually after a loss of power on the line caused its signal system to fail. No deaths were reported. • March 12, 2013, at 16:12, the second car of a
line 5 train derailed near station. There were no casualties. This caused the
line 5 to run 48 minutes behind schedule. During the delay, the line was cut back to and service to the was served by the Jiangchuan Route 1 shuttle bus. The subway said the accident was caused by "signal equipment failure." • 22 December 2024, at 8:00, a Line 11 train (set 1173) traveling at 100km/h between Malu and Wuwei Road collided with a construction crane working on a road connecting the Shanghai-Jiading Expressway and Jiamin Expressway. Most of the glass in the front carriage shattered, and the driver cabin partially collapsed. No people were injured, but the track and train were damaged. The track between Malu and Wuwei Road was closed until 21:30, after all repairs were made. A replacement bus was offered to commuters until then. • January 7, 2026: A power bank a man carried exploded at
Shanghai West Railway Station on
line 15, setting fire to his jacket. Passengers were evacuated by staff and used a
fire extinguisher to extinguish the blaze. The power bank carries the
China Compulsory Certificate (CCC) mark. While it has been mandated that only power banks with CCC marks can be brought on domestic flights within China, with unclear CCC marks, recalled batches also banned, Shanghai Metro does not prohibit power banks without CCC marks.
Platform screen door incidents • End of July 2006 at the
Shanghai Stadium station on
line 4 at about 7:50 p.m. a middle-aged woman accidentally caught her foot between the train and the platform as a group of passengers swarmed aboard the train. She pulled out her foot, but her shoe fell under the platform, and she suffered skin trauma. • July 24, 2007, at 2:41 p.m. A passenger entered a northbound
line 1 train at
Xujiahui station when the buzzer sounded. His laptop bag was caught between the train door and the screen door and hit the tunnel wall, falling to the roadbed as the train began to move. The laptop was valued at 11,350 yuan and Shanghai Metro was only willing to compensate 2,500 yuan. The passenger took the matter to court, and both parties were ultimately found at fault. • On June 6, 2018, at
People's Square station on
line 8 at about 4 p.m. a woman suffered a head injury after she became stuck between the platform screen doors. She later unsuccessfully sued the metro operator for hospital expenses, and claimed she did not hear the door closing chime. • On January 22, 2022, at 16:30 on
line 15 Qi'an Road station an elderly woman was injured and later died after becoming trapped between the platform screen door and train. ==Subway culture==