Yet another post from the newspaper about subway woes. While world's longest subway system is here in Shanghai, there is not much to ooo and ahh about as breakdowns and failures happen on a near-daily basis now. Welcome to China, the land of thorns and thistles. Ordinarily though, the subway system is the 2nd best way to get around the city for medium-to-long distances. The best way is, of course, the motorcycle and scooter which 13 million people are giving a nod to.
Interesting enough, at both times the article mentions subway failures, I was whizzing around the city on the motorcycle.
Even so, it is maddening at how many times the subway breaks down or suffers what they call 'equipment failure' which could mean anything. Let's face a reality here: the subway system is less than 5 years old for the most part, 10 years old tops. Why is it breaking down so often? Two locals reached a breaking point with all the delays. Heck, if the train took 48 minutes to move one stop, you can't blame them for snapping.
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TWO Metro passengers who wedged open the doors of a train in a protest over delays have been fined for disrupting services, police said yesterday.
Thousands of commuters were held up on Thursday night when the pair, surnamed Chen and Zhou, staged their protest around 9pm at Zhongxing Road Station of Line 8.
They blocked the train door with their bodies and feet after it took 48 minutes to travel just one stop between People's Square and Zhongxing Road stations.
As the train was unable to move off while the doors were open, it was delayed for a further 12 minutes at the station, impacting on services behind it.
Police said Chen and Zhou had been arguing with Metro staff and seeking an explanation after Line 8 suffered an equipment malfunction at around 8pm.
They were forced to leave the scene after ignoring police requests to end their protest.
Both were fined 200 yuan (US$31) for preventing the normal operation of public transport, according to police.
The equipment malfunction that prompted the protest saw Metro Line 8 services operate at reduced speed for about 90 minutes from 8pm.
Services experienced another glitch yesterday when at 8:18am an equipment breakdown forced Metro Line 1 services to be slowed down between Xinzhuang and Jinjiang Park stations.
Normal operations resumed at 10am. Details of the equipment failure were not revealed.
Some commuters claim the Metro operator uses equipment failure as a convenient excuse for all service problems.
"The repeated broadcasts drive me mad," said Dai Min, a local resident who uses the subway every day. "They always tell us to wait for another 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes, it can be totally misleading."
Dai is one of many passengers calling on the Metro operator to give more transparent explanations of problems.
Some web users suggested the operator rank the severity of disruptions by a grade or color.
Lan Tian, an official at the operation center of Shanghai Metro, told Shanghai Daily that four kinds of situations are categorized as equipment failure. They include malfunctions on trains, track, signals and stations.
Lan said it was unnecessary to specify the reasons to passengers as the most urgent matter was resume operations when a breakdown happened.
"Sometimes, even the drivers don't know what's wrong," said Lan.
Thousands of commuters were held up on Thursday night when the pair, surnamed Chen and Zhou, staged their protest around 9pm at Zhongxing Road Station of Line 8.
They blocked the train door with their bodies and feet after it took 48 minutes to travel just one stop between People's Square and Zhongxing Road stations.
As the train was unable to move off while the doors were open, it was delayed for a further 12 minutes at the station, impacting on services behind it.
Police said Chen and Zhou had been arguing with Metro staff and seeking an explanation after Line 8 suffered an equipment malfunction at around 8pm.
They were forced to leave the scene after ignoring police requests to end their protest.
Both were fined 200 yuan (US$31) for preventing the normal operation of public transport, according to police.
The equipment malfunction that prompted the protest saw Metro Line 8 services operate at reduced speed for about 90 minutes from 8pm.
Services experienced another glitch yesterday when at 8:18am an equipment breakdown forced Metro Line 1 services to be slowed down between Xinzhuang and Jinjiang Park stations.
Normal operations resumed at 10am. Details of the equipment failure were not revealed.
Some commuters claim the Metro operator uses equipment failure as a convenient excuse for all service problems.
"The repeated broadcasts drive me mad," said Dai Min, a local resident who uses the subway every day. "They always tell us to wait for another 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes, it can be totally misleading."
Dai is one of many passengers calling on the Metro operator to give more transparent explanations of problems.
Some web users suggested the operator rank the severity of disruptions by a grade or color.
Lan Tian, an official at the operation center of Shanghai Metro, told Shanghai Daily that four kinds of situations are categorized as equipment failure. They include malfunctions on trains, track, signals and stations.
Lan said it was unnecessary to specify the reasons to passengers as the most urgent matter was resume operations when a breakdown happened.
"Sometimes, even the drivers don't know what's wrong," said Lan.
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