It has been a long time coming, but the final phase of implementing subway platform safety barriers on Beijing's oldest subway lines will take place this Saturday.
The trial run will take place at Xizhimen Station on Line 2 and Sihui East Station on Line 1. The testing will gradually extend to all Line 1 and 2 stations, culminating in full operational status by September.
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Safety barriers on subway platforms have been mandatory in new subways stations built during the recent transportation infrastructure boom in China. Aging stations like those built for the Beijing Metro Lines 1 and 2 have been slow to adopt the practice due to years of use and deterioration, requiring their platforms to be strengthened before and modifications could be implemented.
Beginning way back in April 2015, work on the Line 1 and 2 subway platform safety barriers has required the electrified third rail to change sides in order to accommodate the new feature. Safety barriers for Line 2 were completed in March while barriers for Line 1 are complete except for Pingguoyuan Station, currently being transformed into a transportation hub.
Transportation authorities have insisted that the safety barriers are necessary, citing instances where commuters have fallen or jumped onto subway tracks. Because they had been the only remaining Beijing subway stations without safety barriers, subway track incidents have been largely associated with Lines 1 and 2 over the past few years.
The automatic safety barriers are equipped with laser sensors at its gates, designed not to close upon detecting subway passengers.
However, despite its name, subway platform safety barriers have been involved in fatalities before. In 2014, a 33-year-old Beijing woman was crushed to death at Huixinxijie Nankou Station after she was caught in the space between the subway door and the platform safety doors. Another similar fatal accident occurred on the Shanghai Metro in 2007.
Last year, cases of accidental death involving safety doors took place on subways in Seoul, Paris, and New York City.
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As beneficial a role that safety barriers may be for the public, the Beijing Metro stands out from other public transportation systems for its sheer volume of passengers, one in which the interval between subways is just two minutes during rush hour.
The 2014 Beijing subway death occurred on the second day of that year's APEC summit in which traffic restrictions forced as many as one million extra commuters onto the Beijing Metro. Luckily, we now have over 1,000 guards also onboard to help with the overflow.
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