China suspends new railway projects
Beijing (CNN)
-- The Chinese government has announced measures to slow down bullet
trains nationwide and halt approval for new construction, a move that
comes amid increasing public scrutiny on the country's railway safety
following a crash last month that killed at least 40 people.
Premier
Wen Jiabao on Wednesday also ordered railway authorities, who had
planned to invest over $400 billion into new projects in the next five
years, to conduct thorough safety inspections on all high-speed rail
lines both in operation and under construction, state-run Xinhua news
agency reported.
"Right now we are checking and eliminating all
potential safety vulnerabilities," railway minister Sheng Guangzu said
in Thursday's edition of the People's Rail newspaper. "Down the road we
want to strengthen our management to ensure rail operations be safe,
sustainable and stable."
Sheng said bullet trains would run 40 to
50 kilometers below their top design speed, which currently stands at
350 kilometers per hour (217 mph) for the fastest model, and ticket
prices would be reduced accordingly.
The actions were prompted by the government after a stalled bullet
train was struck from behind by another train on July 23 near Wenzhou in
eastern Zhejiang province, causing one of China's deadliest rail
accidents in recent years. Railway officials later blamed design flaws
in the rail signal equipment as the culprit.
Many in the public
remain skeptical of the finding, still fuming over reports that the
railway ministry ended its search-and-rescue effort less than six hours
after the collision, and moved to crush and bury one of the six derailed
cars when the investigation had barely started.
Although railway
authorities have denied such allegations, a panel consisted of
high-ranking government officials -- none from the railway ministry --
and academic experts has taken over the investigation and is expected to
produce its report in September.
Reactions were mixed to the government decision to decelerate the country's trains.
"This
is a rational policy to correct the 'great leap forward' strategy of
our high-speed railway development," Professor Zhao Jian, a
transportation expert with Beijing Jiaotong University, told CNN. "It
should have been done earlier -- but this is a good start."
Zhao,
a long-time critic of China's high-speed rail plans, said slower trains
would improve safety and cut operational cost, benefiting both
operators and passengers.
But others compare the new measure to "stopping eating after choking on food."
"The
problem is obviously with management, but they simply decided to reduce
the speed," a user named "usinner" wrote on Shanghai Metrofans, a
popular railway Internet forum. "If they don't address the real problem,
trains are still going to crash even when running below 100 kilometers
per hour."
Now the world's second-largest economy, and flush with
cash, China has built the world's longest high-speed rail network --
boasting more than 8,300 kilometers (5,100 miles) of routes -- in a few
short years. Railway officials also want to export Chinese technologies
to markets that include the United States.
The massive investment
and rapid construction have long raised public doubts on the new lines'
safety and commercial viability. The skeptics' voices became louder
after the former railway minister -- a champion of high-speed rail --
was sacked for corruption early this year.
Even the
Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail -- the ministry's newest and proudest
project -- has broken down several times since its much-touted launch
less than two months ago.
"It's not the faster, the better," Sun
Zhang, a railway professor at Tongji University in Shanghai -- and now a
member of the investigative panel on the deadly crash -- told CNN in
June. "We have to take safety, economics and environmental impact into
consideration."
Eager to reassure skeptics home and abroad,
Chinese leaders have said the government would learn its lessons from
the fatal bullet train collision.
"If safety is
compromised, there is no credibility to speak of," Premier Wen said
during a visit to the crash site on July 28. "It is important that we
integrate our effort in pursuing speed, quality, efficiency and safety
with the understanding that safety always comes first."
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