China orders overhaul of rail network

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BEIJING: China has ordered an urgent overhaul of rail safety, state media said yesterday, after 43 people were killed in the worst accident ever to hit the country’s high-speed train network.

The collision of two trains in eastern China is likely to raise fresh questions over the rapid roll-out of the country’s high-speed lines, the world’s biggest at more than 8,000km.

The government moved swiftly to ease public concern, sacking three senior officials at the Shanghai railway bureau and launching an “urgent overhaul” of national rail safety, Xinhua reported.

An initial investigation into Saturday’s crash in Shuangyu, on the outskirts of the eastern city of Wenzhou, blamed “equipment failure caused by lightning strike”, the railway ministry said in a statement.

Xinhua reported an express that lost power after being struck by lightning was hit by a second train, sending four carriages plunging from a viaduct and derailing another two. Two foreigners were among the dead, it said.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese depend on the country’s railways and any problems generate tremendous public interest in a country where, despite a three-decade economic boom, air travel remains beyond the means of most people.

A new $33 billion high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai opened to passengers amid much fanfare on June 30, a year ahead of schedule, but has been plagued by power cuts and delays, prompting much criticism.

China has ploughed huge sums of money into its high-speed rail network, which covered 8,358km by the end of 2010 and is expected to exceed 13,000km by 2012 and 16,000km by 2020.

Saturday’s rail accident was the worst since April 2008, when 72 people were killed and more than 400 injured when one train derailed and another collided with it in the eastern province of Shandong. – Agencies