可以去火车站吧？

translated as:

(I can take it to the train station, right?)

and my question relates to being sure what is meant by “train station” here. These guys are on a train about to get out at a station, but they're underground on the subway, so if they were referring to a subway station it would be 地铁站,对吧 [subway station, right?]？..and they'd likely either specifically name which subway station they meant or say next one or last one or such like. But in this dialogue they're not taking about a subway station, they're talking about a "train station" by which I take it to mean..an above ground train, right? Now, if I'm right, was it just for the sake of simplification at Ellie level that the train station wasn't named, or is it quite common for the subway and above ground train to only link up at one spot in an area?

Thanks for your reply and confirming about the above ground station.

Supplementary question...I guess what I'm asking in the second part is this...given this chap may have travelled goodness knows how many stops when he asks this xiaojie which way "the" station is...I'd have to take it that there is only one station on line 1 ..and I'm asking how likely it is that there is only one train station connecting on an entire subway line.

Some cities including SH have more than one 'main' train station but even in these situations one is usually dominant and that is the 火车站. If in doubt, you do have to be more specific - eg. the east station, the south station, the north station etc.

Jen_not_jenny refers to the typical situation where a metro system has been grafted on to an older all above-ground system (sometimes misleadingly referred to as the 'heavy rail' system).

Incidentally, when travelling to and from any city you need to be very clear about which station a train leaves from and which station it arrives at. The 火车站 rarely handles all services.

http://www.urbanrail.net/as/shan/shanghai.htm

Fortunately, the subways are traveler friendly, with lots of signs in Chinese and English, and stops are announced by a recorded message, in Chinese and British English.  It might be good to add some typical vocabulary seen on and around subway cars (don't lean on the door...门勿靠?, first exit, then enter, 先出再进？and how seats are marked for elderly or disabled.

Nice lesson.

Interesting. Thanks for the link to the Shanghai subway map which reminded me of the London tube map a little. There was a link to the full map with planned future extensions, which is here:

http://www.urbanrail.net/as/shan/shanghai-future.htm

I must say I'm a little confused now, though. You say this is a map of the subway lines. That map is found under urban rail and is calling it the Shanghai Metro. But looking at the photos below the map, while some could potentially be underground [though it's difficult to tell for sure], mostly it looks like above ground rail. Can anyone explain that? Is this really a map of the subway, or is it above ground rail, or is it a combination of both? If it's the latter, does the numbering incorporate both systems then?

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/9997#comment-188451

You may have worked this out by now but for the record:

- the numbering refers to metro and 'light rail' lines; inter-city lines, the old heavy rail, are not numbered (coloured grey in the map, with stations at 火车站，南站，西站，etc.)

- metro is usually or mostly underground but not necessarily - being entirely underground is not a necessary characteristic of metros around the world

- 'light rail' in China is a kind of Chinese special - it does not mean exactly the same as the term 'light rail' used in the West. In the Western world this is more like a tram and almost always runs above ground and sometimes on the road used by cars and buses. Light rail in China looks rather like metro but often has overhead sections. Some overhead sections of the network in SH are referred to as light rail. This may also refer to trains using fewer cars, and therefore shorter station platforms. Beijing also has a 'light rail' that is more or less integrated with the metro.

PS. In Kunming a network is under construction that is referred to as a metro in some sources and light rail in others. It will have underground and above ground sections (but not overhead as far as I can work out.)

In the expension it says: 下车 = to take a vehicle. I thought it's to get out of a vehicle...