Striking where it hurts most
- Source: Global Times
- [08:24 April 25 2011]
- Comments
Lightning strikes in Fengtai district as an evening storm rolls into Beijing on September 1, 2010. Photo: Caroline Killmer/GT
By Yan Shuang
Signal equipment for subway Line 10 was struck by lightning Friday after-noon, causing a malfunction that af-fected operations for hours. Experts warned that the capital as a whole needs better lightning protection as storm season approaches.
Line 10's problems emerged after a circuit board was damaged by light-ning at about 2:30 pm, causing a sig-nal failure that affected stations from Bagou to Zhichun Lu. The interval be-tween trains was 3 to 4 minutes longer than normal, and passenger number restrictions were implemented at sev-eral major stations, such as Haidian Huangzhuang. Some trains were even cleared out at Mudanyuan station, ac-cording to the Beijing Subway Com-pany on Friday. Operations returned to normal at about 4 pm after repairs were completed.
The disruption occurred even though the Beijing Subway Company told the Legal Mirror that Beijing's subways were safe from such strikes after a Nanjing subway line was hit by lightning on July 23 last year.
The Beijing Municipal Meteoro-logical Station released this year's first lightning warning as rainstorms rolled into the capital Friday afternoon, soak-ing the city for over an hour.
More lightning is to come, predict-ed Song Haiyan, director of the safety testing center for lightning protection devices under the Beijing Meteoro-logical Bureau, China Meteorological News reported Saturday. Most subway equipment is installed underground, but there are wires above ground that may be vulnerable to lightning, he added.
The center conducted its first in-spection of subways' lightning protec-tion devices on five newly built lines last September, including Line 15 and the Daxing and Yizhuang lines, the Beijing Daily reported on September 2 last year.
"The results were quite satisfac-tory," center engineer Song Pingjian told the Global Times. Line 10, among others, was not included in the cen-ter's inspection, as "we received no orders to check that line, nor have we heard of any notice to do future in-spections for now."
The center inspects most of the city's buildings' lightning protection equipment, but their checks are not as effective as they should be, accord-ing to an expert surnamed Wang who works at a lightning-proofing engi-neering company under the bureau.
"Many places in Beijing don't have a comprehensive lightning protection system, as they bank on the luck that there is still a 50 percent chance they won't be struck," Wang said. However, he continued, there are a number of equipment producers that don't test for efficacy.
"That's why there are many low-quality devices circulating on the un-regulated market," Wang said.
