Shanghai Subway collision on site.
Traffic on a pivotal subway line in Shanghai resumed at noon time Tuesday, five hours after its closure for system failure and a subsequent collision of two trains.
Stranded passengers were evacuated from the two collided trains at 11:00 a.m. and the traffic on the Shanghai Subway Line 1 was resumed one hour later. No injuries were reported.
A short circuit caused a power system breakdown in the line at 5:50 a.m., halting traffic between the Southern Shaanxi Road and the People's Square in the city center, said an official with the subway operator, Shanghai Metro.
The power system was about to be restored when two subway trains collided on the route at 7 a.m. The two trains, coded 150 and 117, were both driving slowly and no injury was reported, the official said.
But the collision led to a complete shut-down of Line 1, forcing thousands of passengers to take buses instead.
The city's public transport operators mobilized 80 additional buses to divert the anxious crowds in the morning peak hour.
The cause of the accident is being investigated.
Shanghai Metro has published an apology at its official website.
Line 1 is Shanghai's oldest and busiest subway route. It became operational in 1993 and runs 37 kilometers from north to south.
2009-12-22 10:56:18
The crowed Shanghai Subway Station became calm and clean after collision
Shanghai commuters run out of dead subway, crushed in to BUS.
Trapped in Shanghai subway for 4 hours, passengers walked out finally.
A Shanghai subway line that was closed early Tuesday after a system failure and subsequent collision of two trains, has reopened, subway authorities said.
The two trains, coded 150 and 117, both moving slowly, collided at 7 a.m. after a short circuit caused a power system breakdown in Shanghai Subway Line 1, said a spokesman with Shanghai Shentong Metro Co., Ltd (Shentong), which operates the line.
Train 117, which was empty, left the site at 10:17 a.m. after repairs. But the removal of Train 150 was delayed until 11 a.m. when the passengers trapped inside were rescued, the spokesman said.
He gave no details on how many people were in the train.
Train 150 was dragged out of the station at 11:48 a.m. and Subway Line 1 resumed normal operation at around 12:15 p.m.
No one was injured and Shentong was investigating the cause of the accident, he said.
2009-12-22 15:53:03