China bullet train derails; coaches fall off bridge

[Avenger]

China bullet train derails; coaches fall off bridge
Published: 23 Jul 2011 2211 hrs

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1142644/1/.html

BEIJING - A Chinese bullet train derailed on Saturday with two of its carriages falling off a bridge but the number of casualties was unknown, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The train, travelling from Hangzhou to Wenzhou, went off the rails in eastern China's Zhejiang province around 8:30pm (1230 GMT), it reported, citing local firefighting sources.

China is spending billions on building a high-speed rail network, with Premier Wen Jiabao on June 30 formally opening a flagship US$33 billion line from Beijing to Shanghai.

That line has suffered problems with delays caused by power outages, sparking a slew of criticism online and in Chinese media.

The huge investment has made the sector a hotbed for corruption. China's state auditor has said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan (US$29 million) from the Beijing-Shanghai project.

 

[FuzzyDude]

China bullet train derails; coaches fall off bridge
(AFP)

23 July 2011
BEIJING - A Chinese high-speed train derailed on Saturday with two of its carriages falling off a bridge, the official Xinhua news agency reported, saying casualty numbers were not immediately known.

The train was travelling between the cities of Hangzhou and Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province when it went off the rails around 8:30pm (1230 GMT), it reported, citing local firefighting sources.

It said the derailed train’s number was D3115 and the accident occurred in Wenzhou’s Shuangyu Town.

However, postings on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging services said the accident may have been caused by a collision between two trains and that there were sizeable casualties, without specifying if there were fatalities.

AFP was not immediately available to confirm that information.

Photos posted online appeared to showed one long rail carriage standing vertical, with one end on a concrete bridge and the other resting on the ground at least 10 metres (33 feet) below.

They also showed people being carried away from the scene, although it was not clear whether those victims were injured or dead.

No casualty figures had been officially announced two hours after the accident but Xinhua said the capacity of each car on the train was about 100 passengers.

The accident occurred less than a month after China inaugurated with great fanfare a new flagship $33 billion line from Beijing to Shanghai that halves the rail journey time between the two Chinese cities to five hours.

It was opened on the eve of July 1 celebrations to mark the 90th birthday of China’s Communist Party and authorities touted it as yet another symbol of the country’s growing advancement.

However, the new Beijing-Shanghai line has suffered problems with delays caused by power outages, sparking a slew of criticism online and in Chinese media.

China has poured money into a massive rail expansion but the huge investments have made the sector a hotbed for corruption, and raised concerns over costs and whether corners were being cut on rail safety.

China’s state auditor has said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan ($29 million) from the Beijing-Shanghai project.

The revelation followed the February sacking of former railways minister Liu Zhijun, who allegedly took more than 800 million yuan in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to China’s high-speed network.

The official China Daily said Monday the power supply incident on the Beijing-Shanghai line had raised fresh concerns over the safety of the landmark link, which opened a year ahead of schedule.

Similar trains are used on the line where the accident occurred, which was operating before the new Beijing-Shanghai link.

 

[FuzzyDude]

Rescue workers desperately try to free passengers from the wreckage of train after two carriages from a high-speed train derailed and fell off a bridge in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang province. The country has spent billions on constructing its high-speed rail network.

 

[Devil Within]

That says a lot about China's quality (safety) control. Why am I not surprise?

 

[Sperminator]

This could be due to the corruption... the head of the projects for the bullet train project in China was already arrested for Corruption earlier this year.

上梁不正，下梁歪

Top Pillar are Not Straight (meaning to say, even if the top management is corrupt), Lower Pillar are Slanted (meaning to say lower management, down to the work force level is corrupted as well)

Corruption is a norm globally, it's just the extent of it, that's all.

Whereas for the case of China, and for this mega project of the bullet train project which connects ENTIRE China... this project is so profitable, that everyone involved want a piece of pie...

what happens when everyone takes a piece of the pie, the size of the pie becomes smaller... cost are cut, safety measures cut, materials quality cut, and a lot of cost cutting measures taken, because someone wants to take out the money from this mega project.

it is the case of corruption that caused that... I will think twice about taking the long distance bullet trains... besides, the airfare pricing in China and the bullet train fares pricing is almost the same.

 

[sukhoi-30]

Its a sad day for modern railway transport in China. I think the chinese should not rush to build this Japanese type bullet train without knowng the software as well. They should learn from the Japanese in terms of safety and other skills.

 

[Avenger]

All kind of reasons given by Chinese authorities.. lightning.. collision with another train etc. Even planes don't fall off cos of lightning!

 

[Cestbon]

No one dare to ride on China High speed train anymore. Passenger will drop by at least 50% and the line will not be profitable.

 

[hairylee]

No one dare to ride on China High speed train anymore. Passenger will drop by at least 50% and the line will not be profitable.

From now on passengers will have one hack of a ride.
They will not know their destination until they reach it - Shanghai, Wenzhuo or heaven.

 

[postnew]

Rescuers carry out rescue operations after two carriages from a bullet train derailed and fell off a bridge in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province July 24, 2011. At least 32 people died when a high-speed train smashed into a stalled train in China's eastern Zhejiang province on Saturday, state media said, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network. The accident occurred on a bridge near the city of Wenzhou after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and a bullet train following behind crashed into it, state television said.​

 

[postnew]

 

[drifter]

anything that designed in china is not safe ...im not even surprise .

 

[Sperminator]

those who have ride in the Harmony Line, or 和谐号will know that it's quality is as close as Germany's ICE Trains.

It is surprising to know that this nicely built train could face such problems?

And if you look at the photos, it seems like the in-between carriage were derailed... something tells me that it could be the problem of the tracks or the wheels that caused this... but i don't think we will ever know, as China is not known to release reports on accidents.

 

[1sickpuppy II]

Kind of reminds me of a local incident around 10yrs back. Back then this system just became operation around 1 year plus and software have not fully debugged yet. 1 earily weekend morning the system hanged and the traffic controller just reset the system as per normal but was not awared that 1 of the vch did not appear on the monitor screen. The whole system just lost 1 car and being in the wee hours of the day and on a weekend nobody bothered and the next thing you know both vch crashed luckly no one died.

 

[Siong2]

anything that designed in china is not safe ...im not even surprise .

They copied almost every high end products with fuk quality...
And we will be using their buses? ^^"...

 

[Sperminator]

don't be surprised... Huawei is dominating the IT backbone infrastructure globally... and this is just one of many China Industry Dominance, there are many markets that China have already dominated, and will soon be dominating...

 

[postnew]

 

[Ash007]

China actually uses a lot of different rail components from different countries. The idea is that no one rail tech or country can hold it to ransom if it needs servicing or maintenance in the long term. One of my PRC mei meis mum actually works as a rail consultant and I asked her a question about this if the components would be "incompatible" or if they are fully tested to show compliance. She says that they are designed with full specification so that they are interchangeable. Sounds like a good plan when she puts it out like that. I wonder if this could be a cause of this though.

 

[Sperminator]

sounds like there are alot of cost cutting with the train tracks when there are huge corruption...

referencing from Ash007's info, it sounds likely that the train track could be a cause of the accident.

as the derailment seems to be in between, the first carriage could skim through, the 2nd carriage could go off, and drag the rest of the 3 carriages down.

 

[drifter]

They copied almost every high end products with fuk quality...
And we will be using their buses? ^^"...

you pay for what you get ...