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Commuters sweat it out as crowded subway lines do overtime

The surge in passengers on the first workday under Beijing's new car ban proved problematic for the city's newly expanded subway system, with several stations temporarily shutting down during the rush hours to handle accidents or prevent overcrowding.

The traffic challenges were compounded in the afternoon when a girl jumped onto the subway tracks at Gongzhufen station, on the No1 east-west line, as a train arrived. Subway staff pulled the girl to safety and restored normal operations after a 20-minute shutdown, according to a Xinhua report.

The system's problems in the morning were due to the increase in commuters flooding into the stations, and resulted in delays and station shutdowns.

Witnesses said two main transfer stations along the city's loop line, at Dongzhimen and Xizhimen, had to close temporarily in the morning because of congestion, but resumed operations shortly afterwards.

Two entrances at the Jianguomen station were partly shut down during the peak period, with passengers allowed to exit but not enter. Subway staff used loudspeakers to urge people waiting outside to take other forms of transport.

'Our subway system carried about 3.3 million passengers a day on average last week, and now we are looking forward to carrying about 4 [million] to 4.5 million passengers this week due to the traffic ban,' said Jia Peng , a subway spokesman.

Passengers complained that some trains stopped in the middle of tunnels and air conditioners stopped working.

'It was like hell, especially when they shut the air conditioning off,' commuter Li Weiguo said after taking the east-west line. He said he had wait for three trains to pass through his station before he could squeeze on board. The train then stopped in the tunnel shortly after leaving Gongzhufen station. 'No air conditioning and no nothing. You could only smell sweat and flesh,' he said.

Subway staff and volunteers worked to direct passengers, but amid the crush it was difficult to remain polite, according to Zhang Xiaolong , another commuter.

'If you didn't fight to squeeze in, you would be waiting there on the platform forever,' Mr Zhang said.

Subway authorities extended the system's usual 7am-9am peak hour services by half an hour either side of those times in order to transport more people.

At the same time, road traffic appeared to ease yesterday after the odd-even licence plate restrictions garaged half the city's private cars.

There were fewer cars on most city streets during the morning and afternoon rush hours, and the cars that were on the roads were travelling faster, according to reports from Beijing's traffic regulator.

Traffic on some major roads with special Olympic lanes was a little slower, but no major traffic jams were reported.

One taxi driver said he had seen many vehicles using the Olympic lanes on Sunday, but few had dared to use them after Beijing's traffic regulators announced tougher punishment for violators yesterday.

'But the ban is only good at limiting us ordinary guys,' he said. 'We see police and military cars cruising along the Olympic lanes at something like 100km/h while we have to wait patiently in a long line.'

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