page_title: Woosung Road
section_title: Operation
hierarchical_section_title: Woosung Road / History / Operation
caption_attribution_description: English: Opening of the Woosung Railway in Shanghai in July 1876. Pioneer and Heavenly Dynasty locomotives visible. 中文（简体）‎: 1876年7月3日吴淞铁路通车典礼上的英国制造的“天朝”号蒸汽机车
context_page_description: The Woosung Road or Railway was a 19th-century, 2 ft 6 in narrow-gauge passenger railway in Shanghai, China, between the outskirts of the American Concession in the modern town's Zhabei District and Wusong in Baoshan District. Surreptitiously conceived and constructed, it ran for less than a year before it was purchased and dismantled by the Qing viceroy Shen Pao-chen. The line would not be rebuilt for twenty years. This fate was a commonly invoked symbol of the Qing dynasty's backwardness and insularity, despite the road's admitted illegality and numerous legitimate objections voiced by the Chinese during its construction and operation.
  Its route – still primarily rural as late as the turn of the century – now forms part of the Shanghai Metro's elevated Line 3.
context_section_description: The first engine was the Ransomes & Rapier 0-4-0 Pioneer. On June 12, the 0-6-0 Celestial Empire set the line's record, reaching 25 mph.
  On June 30, 1876, the line was completed as far as Jiangwan. After two days of complimentary and publicity runs for Shanghailanders and local businessmen, this section was opened to passenger traffic on July 3. Over the next month, receipts averaged $40–60 a day. Business was brisk enough to necessitate adding an extra round trip to the original six on July 22.
  On August 3, a local man was killed and Chinese troops from the Wusong garrison were stationed along the railway. The train driver David Banks was charged with manslaughter, but tried in a Western tribunal and acquitted on the grounds that the train had sounded and the suspicion the victim had been a suicide. Given the existing tensions, Thomas Wade used the Margary Affair and the ensuing negotiations over the Chefoo Convention to include advisors from the more conciliatory Li Hongzhang, since promoted to the prestigious viceroyalty of Zhili, into the negotiations in Shanghai and Nanjing. These lasted throughout October, but on the 24th, the Qing government signed with Wade "The Articles of Purchasing the Wusong Railway", which committed them to provide the railway's owners Tls. 285,000, payable in three installments over the course of the next year, at which point they would acquire complete ownership and management of the line. Jardine's agreed to sell in the interest of establishing a native rail network it could supply and help capitalize. At then-current exchange rates, this was equivalent to a £95,000 return on a £20,000 investment. Although Wade had originally only asked for Tls. 200,000, Shen initially offered to pay Tls. 300,000 within 24 hours simply to take immediate possession of the line before another incident.
  Meanwhile, the company continued work on the line. On December 1, 1876, the extension to Wusong was completed and opened, with six cars running six round trips daily. By February, demand was great enough to increase the number of cars to nine, necessitating the use of dual locomotives on each run. At this point, the train had 130 seats and would sometimes carry 250 on festivals. In its year of service, the Woosung Road carried 187,876 passengers, the majority of whom preferred the relatively expensive first- and second-class service. The company posted profits of £27 per mile per week, comparable with British routes. Local Shanghainese entrepreneurs even established a pony-drawn bus service – with both its bus and uniforms modeled on the railroad's – from the Little East Gate of the old town.
caption: The Woosung Road in 1876.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2005:10:16 14:36:04", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2467", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "612", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "166"}