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Subway operator challenged

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Stephen Chenin Beijing

The operator of Beijing's subway system said yesterday that the escalator that suddenly reversed at a station on Line 4 on Tuesday, killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring 30 people, was a heavy-duty model, as were the other escalators used at the capital's subway stations.

But specifications provided by the company tell a different story, according to some mainland transport experts. They show the escalators are not built for heavy loads, can't cope with rush-hour passenger flows and their operation poses serious safety risks.

Beijing Metro Construction and Administration Corporation issued a statement on the website of the municipal Transportation Commission yesterday, denying a report in the South China Morning Post on Wednesday that the use of light-duty escalators was widespread in subway stations on the mainland. The company said that such a problem did not exist in Beijing.

'Our company has purchased heavy-duty escalators for Beijing Subway Line 4 and other subway lines,' it said. 'Escalators on Line 4 underwent heavy load testing when the line's construction was completed, and passed.'

To meet national standards, experts said, escalators would have to be able to endure heavy loads for half an hour in any three hours. In other words, if the rush hour began at 7am and ended at 10am, escalators could not be fully loaded for more than 30 minutes, otherwise their normal operation and the effectiveness of their safety mechanisms could fail.

Transport experts said that the capacity should be at least double to meet the continuous and massive flow of passenger traffic in subway stations, warning that running escalators beyond their designed capacity could cause the entire system to fail, as the many sudden reversals on the mainland had demonstrated.

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