Moment captured: Smog-shrouded trains cleaned and washed after journey

Several smog-shrouded high speed trains were seen being thoroughly cleaned on January 4, 2017 in Beijing. The trains, after making their journeys, had been darkened by thick layers of dust due to the severe air pollution. The pictures of these dirt-covered trains had gone viral online.

"Smog actually consists of some acidic substances that are corrosive once attached to the train surface. This will weaken the performance of the train insulator, which may lead to power leakage,” said station deputy. Affected by smog weather, one overhaul needed to be conducted every 24-hour with a synchronous cleaning, comparing to every 48-hour of a regular check with a separate cleaning process.

Station staff need to climb up to a 6-meter-high working platform with mops and scouring pads to wash the train’s body and top where train insulators. “Some parts of the train will freeze since it’s getting cold recently, and some gaps between equipped parts are too small for our hands to reach in to wipe,” a staff said. Cleaning is therefore getting harder in harsh weather. With the coming of Spring Festival, the workload will become even heavier that one staff needs to wash about 8 trains (about 64 carriages) each day.