The BIM technology has already been gradually popularized in China's urban rail transit industry. The application of BIM have gradually been extended from early pilot application projects to the whole process application of the entire rail transit network. The Shanghai Metro Line 17 is the very first metro line in Shanghai to apply the BIM technology throughout the entire life-cycle. This paper mainly introduces the life-cycle BIM application in Metro Line 17 including the adopted management mode, overall planning, unified standards, digital asset construction of the whole line, characteristic application of the whole process, and BIM based information management platform. The paper also analyzes the application benefits and effects of the BIM technology in the project, and summarizes the experiences and lessons in the implementation process. The project has formed a series of implementation guidelines and management methods, complete digital assets, information management platform and implementation experience, which are of significant reference values for similar projects in the future.