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A man jumped off a subway platform and killed himself in downtown Beijing on the evening of Dec. 21, the Beijing News reported.

A man jumps off a subway platform at Chaoyangmen Station along Line Two at 8:07 p.m. on Dec.21. [weibo.com]

The man fell onto the rails at Chaoyangmen Station of Line Two at 8:07 p.m., according to the Beijing Subway Company. The station was forced to close and trains running in an anti-clockwise direction had to be halted.

Around 9:20 p.m., the man was confirmed dead and his body was removed. A witness said to the local news paper: "The man jumped off the platform when the train was entering the station. Although the train stopped immediately, the man was trapped under the first carriage."

It was the third subway accident this month.

At 1:29 p.m. on Dec. 11, a man was injured after he jumped off the subway platform at Yonghegong Lama Temple Station also on Line Two.

The station operator cut power as soon as possible, and helped the man climb up the platform, according to subway staff. The man was slightly injured and taken away by police. Trains running clockwise on the line returned to normal within 11 minutes.

On the evening of Dec. 20, a man jumped off the subway platform and killed himself at Wangjing West Station of Line 13, the Beijing Subway Company announced on its official microblog page.

According to statistics released by the Beijing Subway Company at the beginning of the year, in 2014, more than 2.9 billion passengers used the 15 subway lines during the whole year, an increase of 6.14 percent year-on-year; as some 7.96 million passengers traveled every day on average.

Line 1, 2, 5, 10 and 13 are considered the busiest in the capital, while Line One and Line Two are the oldest lines. Line Two, which runs 23 kilometers with 18 stations along Beijing's second ring road, started operation in 1987 and transports more than one million people each day.

However, the security infrastructure along the older subway lines is inadequate to totally ensure passenger safety.

In January last year, the Beijing Subway Company vowed to install the platform screen doors on Line One and Line Two, and the construction is expected to be completed by 2017. The chest-high screen doors will be installed within the specific structure of the subway lines, which is expected to significantly improve platform safety.

Authorities from Beijing Subway said that the platform screen doors will be constructed during the three-and-a-half hours when no trains are running overnight on Line One and Line Two so as to significantly reduce the inconvenience caused to commuters.

However, a large number of citizens in the capital still complain about the long construction schedule. Since the city could spend three or four years to complete four subway lines, why will the construction of platform screen doors take so long time?

Officials from Beijing Subway explained that the entire project needs to reconstruct more than ten different systems in the subway, including signals, power supply, screen door monitoring, rail track relocation, the deployment of equipment, realignment of platforms and remodeling of trains.

In addition, after the construction, equipment in the machine rooms, display screens on the platform and other relative equipment also need to be remodeled and debugged. Before being put into service, the installed platform screen doors have to be tested more than 5,000 times so as to guarantee their security.

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