Oh Dear, Shanghai Subway Accident
 

Unfortunate news. :(
Spare a thought for the injured. Along with the subway escalator accidents and the Wenzhou HSR crash, this has not been a good summer for Public Infrastructure That Runs on Rails in China. Thoughts for the injured. Hopes that the accidents are a wake-up call that a better safety and proactive maintenance culture needs to start taking root, toute suite.

Very sad, my thoughts are with the victims.

Line 10 has been plagued with issues from the beginning.

Better City Better Life...

Signal devices fail - disable automatic train protection -
operate trains by sight and telephone communication -
plough into the back of another train.

Sound familiar?

The rear subway train crashed into the train ahead at speed of 10km/hr instead of 100km/hr. Also, can't blame lightning this time.

I think in the HSR crash, the first train was actually moving.
The second train hit way below 100KM as the lead car
didn't show damage associated with that high a speed impact.

I don't think that's what happened before.

Rather, I think the problem is the fail safe system was causing too many problems (probably due to dodgy sensing or communications in the first place) and thus was disabled.

The "I'm stuck here" report gets lost, the system doesn't failsafe, bang.

Yes, it's happened before--the July accident on the high speed rail near Wenzhou. Signaling fault--and apparently the same company involved in signal equipment on the HSR segment involved in the accident, is the same one involved in faulty signal equipment on Shanghai Line 10 subway. Both times--deliberate shut-off of the automatic protections and reliance on manual operation. Both times, two trains end up trying to occupy the same space at the same time. Fortunately, in the subway incident, speed at the time of impact was minimal, or else there would have undoubtedly been some fatalities.

US Version of HSR :p
Las Vegas Monorail

The Las Vegas Monorail project was built by Bombardier Transportation

• During testing and commissioning, the monorail suffered several malfunctions that delayed the start of passenger service for almost a year

• The most serious of these problems related to parts falling from the monorail to the ground under the tracks.

• On September 8, 2004, more problems with falling parts led to the closing of the monorail for nearly four months.

• On February 2, 2005, the monorail system had to be shut down again due to problems with the electrical system.

What amazes me in all of this was the line was in operation again later in the day.

Today, (day after) they have shut down the area that had the accident.

They are now commencing an investigation.


Shouldn't the investigation come first? Verify why it happened and what it takes to fix it then AFTERWARD put the line back in operation?

The WSJ points out that this line, line 10, is designed to be China's largest driverless subway line. Rather scary even if there were drivers at the time.

My landlord in shanghai did tell me after the bullet train that sooner or later, the subway will be next then the elevated expressways . It all boils down to embezzlement of public funds that otherwise would have been spent on public infrastructure.

Sorry to hear it.....

I rode line 10 after the accident. It stopped at Yuli Rd station. A friend of mine was on a train behind the one that crash and got stuck for 1 hour.

There is no information in english explaining why the train was not operating on the full track.

What always piss me off are not the accidents but the way the relevant authorities handle the accidents.

Simply treating humans as animals.:td::td:

Its reported the impact was at 35km/h (22 mph). The operating speed is
80 km/h (49.71). Slowed down somewhat, but didn't fall off a bridge like
the HSR crash.