Helsinki's metro system has suffered a number of setbacks recently. First came the announcement that the western extension would not open in August as planned because of construction delays.
Then on Wednesday the network suspended service in the east of the city after a collision during a training run.
Nobody was injured in the incident, which took place in the early hours of the morning while the network was closed, but the track and platform were damaged and the network was shut down between Itäkeskus and Vuosaari.
The crash is under investigation—with metro officials still stumped as to what exactly was the problem. It was the first ever collision in Finland.
Veli-Pekka Nurmi of the Accident Investigation Centre says that there is a driver and a safety mechanism in operation to prevent metro trains colliding, but apparently both failed.
"The thousand dollar question is how this is possible, that these trains have been able to run like this," said Nurmi. "It was lucky that this happened during the night. I wouldn’t like to speculate, but if there had been passengers on board and on the platform, this would probably have significantly worsened the situation."
Passengers were left wondering exactly the same on their buses between Vuosaari and Itäkeskus—and according to the operator the investigation might take as long as half a year.
That should mean the western extension is open before we know why this collision occurred, unless further delays to that project are announced.