CHINA HAS transferred 21 of its high-speed trains from other railway lines to ensure the smooth operation of the flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway after 54 trains used on the route were recalled over safety concerns.
These are tough times for China’s flagship high-speed rail project. The government has frozen approval of new railway schemes and halted some bullet train manufacturing after a crash last month in which 40 people died.
China’s largest train manufacturer, China South Locomotive Rolling Stock (CSR), said 67 high-speed trains were in operation on the Beijing-Shanghai railway, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The announcement came after another train-maker, China CNR, said late last week that it would recall 54 high-speed trains used on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, due to safety concerns.
The ministry of railways last week unveiled a plan to slow down the operational speeds of the country’s high-speed trains, as well as reorganise bullet train schedules nationwide, for safety reasons.
The ministry also cut the number of high-speed trains running daily between Beijing and Shanghai to 66 from today.
The decision to put the project on ice came after an executive meeting of the state council, presided over by premier Wen Jiabao.
CSR also said it had established a new service centre in the city of Jinan in east China’s Shandong province, an important stop on the Beijing-Shanghai railway, to meet increasing maintenance requirements.
It had also ordered more quality checks for the company’s products.
The collision on July 23rd happened when one bullet train was stopped on a viaduct near the eastern city of Wenzhou after a lightning strike and another train ploughed into it.
The high-speed rail system is a prestige project for the Communist Party, designed to showcase China’s innovative abilities and technological prowess. Instead, though, it has led to accusations that the Beijing government was putting the desire to modernise and innovate ahead of personal safety. Critics say the system is too expensive and too dangerous.
The extent of public outrage in reaction to the crash has been intense. It was so powerful that even China’s official media got in on the act.
The normally placid People’s Daily newspaper, effectively the Communist Party mouthpiece, wrote that China did not need “blood-soaked GDP” – gross domestic product.