Three Metro lines will connect at Shanghai West Railway Station when it opens in Putuo District in 2010.

Lines 11, 15 and 16 will meet at the station, the Putuo District Urban Planning Administration said after experts approved the plan.

The railway station, surrounded by Zhenjin Road, Zhennan Road, Taopu Road and Fuping Road, will cover an area of 37.3 hectares and include two plazas, said Cheng Wenbin, the project's administration director.

Two underground passages will be built. The first will be 80 meters wide and will link the two plazas. The other will be about 50 meters wide and will connect the three subway lines to a bus station at ground level, Cheng said.

Shanghai West Railway Station will be a hub for the Huning Intercity Railway, which connects Shanghai and Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province. It will take 72 minutes to travel between the cities when the station opens and the hub will serve up to 100 million passengers annually.

Meanwhile, the first Bombardier train has arrived in the city to be tested for use on Metro Line 7, which is due to open next year.

Metro operators have ordered 32 trains from the Canadian train maker Bombardier. The rest will arrive next year.

The 35-kilometer Line 7 will have one ground-level and 27 underground stations, 11 of which will connect to other Metro lines. The line will serve Baoshan District and Pudong New Area, and is expected to carry passengers to and from the 2010 World Expo.

Before the start of the Expo, Shanghai should have 400 kilometers of Metro lines crisscrossing the city.

Eight new Metro lines and extensions are under construction. A total of 116 new stations will be built before the Expo.