Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Unexpected Accident Hit Shanghai Subway

July 23, on bullet train rear-ended the other, unknown number of passengers perished. While the focus of investigation was the signal system ATP, which gave green light even when there was another train occupying the same segment of rail right ahead, it was revealed that many subway systems, including the Shanghai Subway used the same signal system. The authority attributes the cause of accident to lightning strike, vowed to keep an eye on weather, but refused to examine the signal system. The Central Propaganda Department issued an memo to forbid mentioning the subway signals. One Beijing reporter posted the memo to a micro-blog was suspended.

July 29, a Shanghai subway train traveled to the opposite direction for no reason. The authority blamed on the signal system, but guaranteed that Shanghai's subway carts (might head-on, but) would never rear-end, at the time when people's memory of the bullet train accident was still fresh.

September 26, A Shanghai subway train rear-ended the other around noon, more than 260 injured. The accident duplicated the bullet train accident train to every detail. The ATP signal system failed for unknown reason (no lightning strike underground). The Subway company used manual control, and lost count of trains and their whereabouts.

The official national TV station CCTV did not see it worth a word in its Evening News.

Same signal system was used by the No. 1 and No. 2 lines of Subway in Tehran, Iran. Was that project sponsored by the CIA?

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