Munich plans doors on subway platforms

On Friday, municipal officials said Munich would become the first German city to install doors on the platforms for underground trains, used for up to 413 million trips per year in the city. The doors would keep passengers away from tracks and only open when trains have come to a complete stop.

The doors are to be tested at the Olympiazentrum station in 2023, said Michael Friess, who is in charge of Munich's U-Bahn system.

Should the trial prove successful, the MVV public transit agency would then install the doors in all of the system's 100 stations, beginning with the busiest, as part of the plans to digitize the network by 2028.

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Though discussion of heightened security at public transit points has increased since a child was pushed onto the tracks and killed by an incoming train at Frankfurt's main station on Monday, the MVV plans were first drawn up in 2016.

On Friday, officials from the agency told reporters that there had been a series of incidents of people jumping onto the tracks or falling onto them drunkenly; in 2018 alone, 215 people fell to the tracks, with 21 of them killed or injured by incoming trains.

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The doors would also facilitate quicker entry to and exit from the trains, officials say, and keep the tracks free from trash and loose papers, which pose a fire risk.

mkg/amp (AFP, dpa)

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