Beijing subway breaks down 39 times this year

Commuters wait to board a train of subway line 10 at the Guomao Station, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan 7, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Beijing MTR Corporation statistics show that Beijing's Subway has broken down 39 times so far this year, at least one failure per week, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Monday.

18 of the 39 failures were caused by signal system.

Gu Qingyi, director of the Equipment Department of Beijing MTR Corporation said that the failures could be also linked to "many different devices including power equipment, line equipment, mechanical and electrical equipment, and communication signal equipment, but signal failure is the primary cause."

Gu added that the rapid growth of passenger volume was another reason behind the failures. Beijing's Subway system now handles an average of 8.49 million passengers a day.

Moreover, Beijing Subway has 14 lines with 140 thousand different related facilities, including platform screen doors, elevators, and automatic ticket checkers.

"For different types of equipment coming from different manufacturers, maintenance procedures have to be dealt with differently and it is difficult for our operation to ensure equipment reliability and stability, let alone communicate and coordinate among separate manufacturers," Gu said.