Beijing to install safety gates on two oldest subway lines

The Beijing Subway Group has promised to install safety gates on the platforms of the city's two oldest subway lines by 2017, on Wednesday in Beijing. To move to shield the passengers from falling down to the rails comes after recent incidents where passengers were injured or killed after falling off platforms.

The most recent example, a man stepped onto the tracks of Fuxingmen station, Line 1, at 14:15 on Thursday. Station staff members pulled the emergency brake and cut off the electricity to the rails immediately and rescued the man, Beijing Subway Group posted on their Sina Weibo microblog account.

Beijing Subway Group operates the cities 14 subway lines.

Just a day earlier, a woman fell into the track of Line 2's Xuanwumen Station around 10:50 pm on Wednesday. Chinese media outlets reported on Thursday that the metro failed to stop in time and hit the woman.

The subway authorities have not released information regarding the incident. The woman's situation is unknown.

Accidents involving passengers falling off platforms always happens on Line 1 and 2, the earliest subway lines in Beijing, because there are no shield screens along the platforms, the subway authorities said.

In response, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said on Wednesday that the two lines will have safety gates installed at all stations by 2017. These same protection measures are already in place on other subways lines.