Casco again blamed in China subway crash injuring 270-plus

SHANGHAI (AP)

A Shanghai subway train crashed into a stopped train during a signal failure Tuesday, injuring more than 270 people in the latest trouble for the newly expanded transportation system in China's commercial center.

The signal failure meant trains on Line 10 were being directed via phone by subway staff instead of electronic signals and thus were running at lower speeds, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said in a statement. That line opened last year and is one of the city's newest.

At least 271 people were hurt, none seriously, said Xu Jiangguang, head of the city's health bureau. Some of the injured were carried away on stretchers, however, and 30 were being kept overnight for observation.

"This is the darkest day ever for the Shanghai subway. Regardless of the cause or responsibility, we are stricken with remorse for having caused our passengers injury and losses," the company said in an apology posted on its blog. "We want to deeply, deeply apologize."

The signal system is a product of Casco Signal Ltd., a joint venture of China Railway Signal and Communication Corp. and Alstom, which reportedly supplies signal systems to a number of subways in Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen.

Casco was blamed for a subway train crash in Shanghai in 2009, and it was the supplier of a centralized traffic control system for a railway in east China's Zhejiang Province where two bullet trains crashed on July 23, killing 40 people and injuring 177.

That accident exposed festering resentments over the huge costs of the country's massive buildup of its rail system, especially its high-speed lines.

Authorities have not yet disclosed the results of an investigation into the cause of that accident, though state media cited experts as saying signaling equipment was a key factor.