Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission recently announced that a public hearing on adjusting the metro fare mechanism in Shanghai will be held on September 7th. Some analysts believe that the main reason for this adjustment might be the financial pressure faced by the Shanghai government due to a lack of funds.
The commission stated that the fare mechanism adjustment applies to the entire metro system in Shanghai, excluding the Maglev line, Jinshan Railway, the urban airport line, and future urban lines.
Currently, the starting price for the Shanghai metro is 3 yuan for up to 6 kilometers, with an additional 1 yuan every 10 kilometers thereafter. The fare system adopts a “decreasing price for longer distances” principle, where the unit kilometer fare becomes cheaper as the distance traveled increases.
The last fare adjustment for metro transportation in Shanghai took place in 2005 when the metro system only consisted of five lines. This adjustment will have a broader impact as Shanghai’s metro network has expanded significantly. As of the end of 2025, Shanghai’s metro system had 21 operational lines and transported a total of 3.71 billion passengers throughout the year, ranking first nationwide.
Li Junfang, a lecturer at the Urban Rail Transit Institute of Shanghai University of Engineering and Technology, who has been engaged in rail transit planning and management research for a long time, believes that with the operation of long-distance routes to new cities such as Songjiang, Jiading, and Qingpu compared to 21 years ago, longer travel distances with cheaper unit kilometer fares require more financial subsidies to cover the operational costs per kilometer.
Currently, there is no publicly disclosed data regarding the overall financial situation of the Shanghai metro system.
Columnist Shi Jie wrote on August 2nd in “First Financial Daily” that the Shanghai metro system is suffering significant losses. In 2025, Shanghai’s metro system had total operational costs, including operations, depreciation, equipment upgrades, amounting to 70.95 billion yuan, with total revenue of about 48.62 billion yuan (including ticket revenue of approximately 16.41 billion yuan and non-ticket revenue from advertising, shops, etc., approximately 32.2 billion yuan), leading to a high financial subsidy of 23.56 billion yuan.
In China, most metro systems are operated at a loss. According to the “Urban Rail Transit 2025 Annual Statistical and Analysis Report” released by the China Urban Rail Transit Association, the average revenue per passenger kilometer in urban rail transit in 2025 was 0.92 yuan, while the average cost per passenger kilometer was 1.63 yuan. The ticket revenue from metro systems can only cover about half of the operational costs.