Shanghai officials say they are addressing the challenge of getting a taxi at Shanghai South Railway Station, which opened last weekend.

The Urban Transport Administration has delivered detailed route guide maps to most local taxi drivers. A taxi control center for the station is also under construction.

According to the map, taxis run on their own lane, which has improved traffic flow to and from the station.

However, there is no station employee organizing the passenger queue, and a few drivers still refuse to accept the passengers who want to take a short distance.

"I'm going to the Kerry Center on Nanjing Road W." said a young man surnamed Liu who had just returned from Beijing yesterday afternoon.

"The driver refused to take me because it's too near."

Liu had to take his heavy bags and ask the next driver. Luckily, the next one agreed to take him.

The driver who turned the man down admitted that he is only waiting for long-distance passengers, and he thought this was not illegal.

Poor management

"Most drivers won't refuse any passenger here now," said a driver of Bashi Taxi surnamed Shen. "Only those who belong to a nonstandard taxi fleet would do this."

Shen said the main cause of the inconvenience to call taxi at the railway station is the disordered administration there. But it has improved a lot now.

"We have just received a guiding map yesterday," said Shen with a small map in hand.

"We have already installed enough guiding boards in the station," said Han Yi, an official of Shanghai South Railway Station. "And the taxi control center will soon be finished."

(Shanghai Daily July 7, 2006)