Passengers in Hangzhou and Ningbo, Zhejiang province can now pop on the metro trains in the neighboring city of Shanghai by scanning their QR codes of the respective metro apps, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group announced on Dec 1.

The initiative, a fresh step towards deepened integration of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, allows metro riders to board trains in 526 metro stations in the three cities using a shared QR code embedded in their apps.

At the same time, Shanghai commuters can use the official Metro Daduhui app to pay for metro services in its two neighboring cities.

According to statistics, the percentage of people swiping phones to pay for metro fares in Hangzhou and Ningbo has hit around 50 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The interconnected metro service between Hangzhou and Ningbo, partly attributed to the effective operation of rail traffic and the rapid development of mobile payment in two cities, will be available by the end of the year, said an official from Shentong Metro Group.

It is expected that the service will be universal across the major cities among the affluent YRD region by the end of 2020, including Nanjing, Suzhou, Hefei, Wuxi, Wenzhou and Changzhou.

A woman displays the QR Code in a metro app on her smartphone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]