Nanjing Metro Line 2 takes a lot of people to go about their business every day. Approximately 600,000 citizens rode its trains yesterday, 5 June. For some though, the journey between Zhongling Jie and Maqun stations turned out to be no ordinary affair.
At 16:09 yesterday, Nanjing Metro announced that there had been a, “sudden equipment failure”, affecting trains in both directions between the two stations.
As per the Nanjing Metro’s official account on Weibo, “This afternoon, in the section between Maqun Station and Zhongling Jie Station on Line 2, smoke of unknown origin drifted into the tunnel, infiltrating train carriages and platforms”.
Over on social media, passengers taking the Metro confirmed the smoke had reached the station platforms and even the interior of trains.
As some passengers posted online, “The smoke was very heavy, as if the rubber had been burnt”, “It smells so bad; the metro is full of smoke”, and, “The smell of smoke is so strong that my throat hurts”.
At 16:53 on the same day, another posted a message to say that firefighters had arrived at the scene to deal with it, the Yangtze Evening News reports.
It was initially suspected the smoke to be the result of faulty equipment, but after several specialised inspections, it was decreed that the status of all equipment was normal and that the smoke had not impacted the operation of the Metro.
At 17:04, Nanjing Metro authorities announced that the operation of Line 2 had returned to normal. The cause of the smoke, which other passengers described as “pungent”, remains unknown or unannounced.
Line 2 is the second oldest line on the Nanjing Metro network. Opened on 28 May, 2010, trains for Line 2 were jointly manufactured by CRRC Nanjing Puzhen and Alstom of France.
Even older is Line 1, dating back to 2005, and where the only derailment on the Nanjing Metro took place, in 2021. On 4 March, a train came of the tracks as it was approaching the then-terminus of the Line, Maigaoqiao.
Having derailed, the train, thought to be one of a pair employed to do a test run on the tracks each morning, then collided with the platform corner as it entered Maigao Qiao Station. Without passengers aboard, there were no casualties in the incident.
