This supposedly could not happen, but then the Titanic was, according to the publicists, NOT the designers and builders, unsinkable.
Here is the essence of the article, since I have no idea how long it will be available:
According to a statement from the Shanghai municipal government, a compartment caught fire at 2:40 pm as the train reached the Longyang Lu terminal from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Passengers were evacuated immediately.
(Longyang Lu (Lu = Road) is the city end terminal where a transfer to the Shanghai Subway can be made.)
The train was then moved to a point about 1 km outside of the station.Fire trucks and ambulances arrived soon after and a person climbed down from the driver’s compartment using a ladder.
Trains continued to operate on the adjacent track. According to the statement, the fire was brought under control after about one hour.
A preliminary investigation has excluded the possibility of foul play, but the cause of the fire has not yet been released. Further investigation is under way, according to the statement.
The maglev rail line, connecting the Pudong International Airport to the Line 2 subway, began operation on December 31, 2002.
The train covers a distance of 30 kilometres. (=18.6 miles) (I have seen 32 km elsewhere, = 19.9 miles) Maximum speed reached in normal operations is 430 km/h (=267 mph), but for only a few seconds, the rest of the distance being either accelerating or braking.
If you go to the article and look at the picture, you will notice that there is absolutely no means of emergency evacuation of the passengers.
George
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
That did strike me as odd, the lack of emergency access. But then it struck me that neither does the Walt Disney World monorail in Florida, nor do several other monorails worldwide. It seems to be a common ommission in older monorails (of which WDW is one). But *newer* systems like Shanghai surprises me - most now have an emergency walkway between the two tracks/rails.
Geoff M.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Evacuation walkways are required by NFPA 130, which is the general safety requirement for transit systems in the US. These requirements have been adopted in quite a few other parts of the world as well. There is also a monorail in Disneyland in California. For both of these and Seattle, they would probably be "grandfathered" becuase they predate the law. It could also be that the Disney monorails are not covered because they are amusement park rides. I have a copy of the regulation, but it is at the office and I am not, and I cannot recall the exact way the covered systems are defined. I do believe that as written it would cover a maglev built in the US.