Poreg View: The dismissal of state-run railways spokesperson Wang Yongping, announced on Aug 16 is the first instance of a head rolling in full public view for something that is wrong systematically with the high-speed trains in the country. But the charge that is made against the official doesn’t indicate the Communist Party and the government in Beijing are serious of coming to grips with the problems thrown up by the collision of two high speed on July 23 near the city of Wenzhou in Eastern China. Nor is there any move to win back the confidence of rail commuters, who are gradually shunning the Chinese railways show piece to the world.
The axe fell on Wang him for some of his post- crash remarks which brought ridicule not only to him personally but to the Chinese railway also. When rescuers pulled a toddler out of the wreckage alive many hours after the rescue effort were officially called off, Wang tried to ward off questions from reporters saying it was “a miracle of life.”
The Wenzhou collision claimed 40 lives and left 210 inured. Such a major accident calls for a thorough review of the safety systems and a temporary halt to the high speed rail projects. And a broad based investigation into the crash per se.
The wreckage was hastily cleared before an official investigation had even begun. The official explanation for this, as articulated by the dismissed Wang was that the wreckage had to be cleared to aid rescuers. “Whether you believe it or not, I believe it anyway,” he told reporters, to the dismay of the people, who are now seething with uncontrolled anger.
Faced with a severe backlash, the powerful railway ministry has since stopped work on all new high-speed rail projects. The embargo doesn’t apply to projects already under way. The Ministry attributed the July 23 crash to a design flaw in the signaling device. But it has ducked the demands for an independent investigation since the high speed technology was less indigenous and based more on rip off of imported systems.
Three other steps are, however, welcome developments. The Chinese bullet train manufacturer, CNR Corporation, is recalling 54 of its trains from the Beijing to Shanghai route to test the sensors to check whether these were making the trains to stop unnecessarily. The number of high-speed trains is reduced on the busy Beijing-Shanghai route from 88 to 66 in each direction. A 50 km per hour cut in speed has been ordered across- the- board. Official claim is that Chinese high-speed trains have reached a speed of 486 km/h since December last year, though the top speed is maintained at around 300 kilometers per hour.
China has the world’s biggest high-speed rail network at 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles). It is expanding the length at breakneck speed to touch 13000 km by next year and 16,000 kilometres in nine more years.
The Rail Ministry has a backlog of three to four years on rail lines previously approved and not yet built. So ‘stop the work’ makes little sense since these on-going works don’t fall under the ban. This is what had happened in the Chinese nuclear sector after the Japanese tsunami created a global scare on the safety of nuclear plants.
