Beijing authorities ordered most news stalls in city subway stations shut down on Sunday over concerns about passenger safety.

The orders will close all news stands at the train platforms but leave a few in the ticket halls, sources from the Beijing Metro Group said.

"There are too many news stalls in the subway, which hampers passengers from evacuating if something urgent were to happen such as fires or accidents," said Jia Peng, an official with the Metro group.

According to a report from the Beijing Morning Post, the newspaper has stopped supplying newspapers to news vendors in the subway station.

In order to satisfy the reading desires of passengers, however, a few news booths in the ticket halls were allowed to remain operating, said Jia.

But he did not mention how the closed stalls and their workers would be resettled, and whether they would reopen later.

Meanwhile, snack stores in the subways were also ordered to shut down, according to Jia.

Byone Global Food Company, which has been in the fast food and snack business in subway stations for 10 years, also received the notice from the subway group to close its businesses.

However, Shanghai's subway section said it has no similar plans to follow the measures taken by Beijing's metro system.

Officials said the Shanghai system has already taken various measures to ensure safety, including placing fire extinguishers at conspicuous spots and labeling exits with fluorescent colours, according to the Shanghai Urban Railway Management Division under the city's Transportation Management Bureau.

"News stalls and fast food stores do not impose a big challenge to the safety of the Shanghai subway," said Huang Wichun, a Shanghai division official, "because commercial businesses such as stores selling food or clothes were taken into account when the subway was built."

He noted the subway installed sprinklers and ventilation systems, and forbids passengers to carry highly flammable materials.

(China Daily Sep 9, 2003)