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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Why are there so many accidents on Chinese subway lines lately?
12 years 50 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
Probably seems so, because they are reported as they are of great concern. The industry is only relatively new in China, therefore you get problems with signaling and training of drivers, operators etc
I think it depends on how many people died, as bad as that sounds. My Chinese friend said if no one dies in a crash they won't actually change or fix anything o_O
Like Alex said, poor signaling equipment and training of technicians. Also poor scheduling. There have been several accidents where a train was running late and was hit by a train traveling on time on the same rail.
Signalling systems fail all the time world wide. But they all fail safe ie to stop (red). What happens then is that trains are manually worked by train control staff using whatever the procedural system is to deal with the signal failure. These systems vary from country to country. The more safeguards you put in place the longer the delay as the trains either wait till the signal problem is rectified, usually 30mins to a couple of hours depending on the problem and the location of technicians, so it is finding a ballance between risk and delays. The basic principle of most procedural systems is that the trains communicate their position to the controller once they are clear of known points on the track and then this is backed up with the following trains travelling at reduced speed. (In Australia that is as slow as the driver needs to travel so that he can stop at train within his field of vision) tha's very slow because a train takes a long distance to stop. What happend in both the recent accidents is the procedure failed. Because this manual over ride happens regularly without incident people at times because they are busy or because there is pressure to minimise delays cut corners or have communication errors. I think the ulimate cause will be tracked back to one of these actions.