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Safety, fund woes delay high-speed rail projects

Shanghai Daily, November 9, 2011

A credit squeeze and safety concerns have prompted China to slow down its galloping pace in building the world's largest high-speed railway network, as the openings of at least four newly built routes have been delayed.

Bullet services to 'stay slow' during checks.[File photo]

The Shijiazhuang-Wuhan high speed railway, which was due to open for operation at the end of this year, put off its big day "indefinitely" while the other three lines, including the interprovincial Wuhan-Yichang line, all will see at least two-month delays, the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The 840-kilometer Shijiazhuang-Wuhan line, the longest north-south route still to be built in China's planned high-speed rail network of over 13,000 kilometers by 2012, connects to the Beijing-Shijiazhuang high-speed railway in the north and the Wuhan-Guangzhou line in the south.

Trains are designed to run at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour on the line.

"It's impossible for the Shijiazhuang-Wuhan line to open for operation at the year end," said Zhang Cheng, a manager with Hubei-based China Railway 11 Bureau Group Corp, which is responsible for the construction of the line.

"People at least have to wait another year," he said, citing a safety campaign launched by the Ministry of Railways after a fatal train crash that killed at least 40 people and injured 192 others in July.

The 290-kilometer Wuhan-Yichang line, meanwhile, remains under testing instead of its previously planned opening this month. The line, which will connect to other lines running across the country's eastern, central and western regions, will not carry passengers until an overall safety review expected in March next year, Xinhua said.

Another two intercity lines that run around Wuhan in Hubei Province also shelved their operation schedules until next year.

The delays came along with a report by China Securities Journal yesterday that China is likely to cut its investment in railways to 500 billion yuan (US$79.11 billion) per year from the 800 billion yuan a year proposed in a long-term plan.

In 2010, investment in rail sector fixed assets reached 842.6 billion yuan, and this year the ministry plans to complete basic infrastructure investment worth 600 billion yuan, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

The State Council ordered adjustment of the medium- to long-term plan for rail network expansion, it said. "But no conclusive document has emerged yet," it added.

Two high-speed trains collided in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province on July 23 with several carriages derailed. Defective signal systems were later blamed as the main reason for the deadly accident while other follow-up media reports revealed more potential safety risks hidden on China's vast high-speed railway lines.

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