Chinese Don't Want to Give up High-speed Ambitions

Following the fatal bullet-train collision last month in eastern China's Wenzhou city that killed 40 people and injured nearly 200 others, the Central Government has pledged to dig out every detail of the accident, sacked three railway officials and carried out a nationwide rail safety check.But the public's anger over the crash shows no signs of fading.

Under the circumstances, some people still believe the country should not give up its ambitious plans to build a nationwide high-speed railway system.

For most migrant workers in China, train travel is the only way they can reunite with their family during the holidays.

Xiong Daosheng from Sichuan Province used to travel by boat along the Yangtze River to reach his workplace in central China. The trip always took an entire day.

But this year, Xiong bought train tickets after waiting in line for two days. He says not only has the high-speed train shortened his travel time to four hours, but also it has saved him almost 200 yuan.

Xiong is among more than 220 million Chinese who travel by train during the winter holiday season-six times more than the number who travel by plane.

The potential business from train passengers could be huge. Despite some initial problems on the new high-speed rail route between Beijing and Shanghai, some 170 thousand people rode on the line each day last month. That boosted the number of train passengers traveling between the two cities by nearly 60 percent.
Mr. Gou is a regular passenger on the line. His says his confidence in the high-speed rail travel remains steady despite the fatal accident in Wenzhou.

"I think what happened in Wenzhou was only an accident. After all, the government has put a lot of effort in it (building train lines). I don't think it will ignore the safety issue anymore. Maybe a seatbelt is necessary on high-speed trains.

While it may not be necessary on regular trains, when the train is running at more than 300 kilometers per hour, it could save lives."

China had increased train speeds seven times over a decade before it launched its first high-speed line, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity High-Speed Rail.

The central government has invested nearly 2 trillion yuan in the railway sector in the past five years.Every kilometer of the new rail line linking Sichuan migrant worker Xiong's hometown with his workplace has cost the government 60 million yuan.
Private investor Li Wu says the expanding of rail system has revolutionized the small businesses.

"China's transport capacity is far from sufficient. We used to spend a lot on express roads, which are much more expensive than railways. Now we can afford to do passenger and freight transport separately, which was impossible five years ago."

Railway authorities estimate that each yuan spent on high-speed rail construction contributes at least 5 yuan to China's economic output.

But at least for now, people say the huge amount of investment should be spent on research and technological innovations to ensure safety is always a priority before the sector expands its business overseas and competes with international players.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.