It is sometimes conflated with the earlier Woosung Road,[1] whose route it principally shared.

That railway had been purchased from its foreign owners – principally the British firm Jardine, Matheson, & Company – in 1876 and dismantled for reuse in the Taiwanese coal fields.

The Songhu was also extended north into Woosung proper and additional stations opened.

The line was badly damaged during World War II.

The route was eventually incorporated in the Shanghai Metro's Line 3.