Construction is ready to start on a bus station linking Shanghai's longest and fastest subway line and Kunshan, an important commercial city 50 kilometers north of Shanghai in Jiangsu Province.

Design of the station has been approved and preparation is being made for construction, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

The station is at the intersection of Chaoyang Road E. and Xingye Road.

The station's buses will connect to Jiading West Station of Shanghai's Metro Line 11 when it opens later this year.

Kunshan, a city of 1.6 million people that lies near Shanghai's suburban Jiading and Qingpu districts, is a vigorous commercial and industrial city.

The city's water scenery has lured Shanghai people into buying weekend residences there over the past couple years, and it is home to many Taiwanese.

Suzhou City's Metro Line 3, to be built between 2015 and 2016, will also connect to Shanghai's Line 11, the newspaper reported. The link will be in Jiading's Anting Town.

Still under construction, Shanghai's Metro Line 11 will stretch 126 kilometers across Pudong, Changning, Xuhui, Putuo and Jiading districts. The line's trains will have a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour, well above the current 80 kilometers per hour on the other lines.

The Line 11 project is split into northern and southern sections.

The first phase of the northern section, extending to Shanghai International Circuit, the city's Formula One racetrack, in Jiading, will start service by the end of this year.

The second phase of the northern section will run 21 kilometers from Xuhui to Pudong and will open after the 2010 World Expo.

The 59-kilometer southern section will be mostly in Pudong, ending in coastal Lingang New City. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2012.

(Shanghai Daily August 4, 2009)