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Tuesday 2 February 2010
Rail woes persist despite spending
The mainland rail system is struggling to cope with problems in service, safety and research and development, despite the central government’s record spending on it last year.
The mainland rail system is struggling to cope with problems in service, safety and research and development, despite the central government’s record spending on it last year.
As the Lunar New Year nears and millions of migrant workers prepare to go home for the holidays, the problem of inadequate services will become especially acute.
Last year, spending on railway construction soared 78 per cent to 600 billion yuan (HK$680 billion), the highest ever, and will rise to 700 billion yuan this year, according to the railway ministry. This was spurred by the central government’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus launched in late 2008 to combat the financial crisis.
“The problems are there, with such big changes in 2009 and 2010,” Weng Zhensong, a professor at the Economic and Planning Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways, said.
Problems included a lack of technology and a shortage of tickets during the spring holidays, Weng said. Quality and safety issues were also concerns, he said.
Customer dissatisfaction with train services was mainly due to the shortage of train tickets for the Lunar New Year, he said. “There are no short-term solutions to this problem. We need to build more rail lines.”
The ministry expects the number of train passengers during the spring break this year to rise 9.5 per cent to 210 million.
The internet offers many stories about the difficulties of getting tickets during this time. In one online posting, a man trying to buy a train ticket from Guangzhou to Harbin described queues at stations that were 50 metres long. He said he bought a ticket on the black market for 650 yuan in the end, 250 yuan above the regular price.
The Ministry of Railways needed to acquire land on which to build railways, but the country’s land regulations were not clearly defined, Weng said. “We need political support to build railways.”
The director of Asian equity research at Daiwa Securities, Geoffrey Cheng, said China lacked proprietary technology for the development of high-speed trains, having to import most of its know-how from foreign partners.
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Rail woes persist despite spending
Toh Han Shih
29 January 2010
The mainland rail system is struggling to cope with problems in service, safety and research and development, despite the central government’s record spending on it last year.
As the Lunar New Year nears and millions of migrant workers prepare to go home for the holidays, the problem of inadequate services will become especially acute.
Last year, spending on railway construction soared 78 per cent to 600 billion yuan (HK$680 billion), the highest ever, and will rise to 700 billion yuan this year, according to the railway ministry. This was spurred by the central government’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus launched in late 2008 to combat the financial crisis.
“The problems are there, with such big changes in 2009 and 2010,” Weng Zhensong, a professor at the Economic and Planning Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways, said.
Problems included a lack of technology and a shortage of tickets during the spring holidays, Weng said. Quality and safety issues were also concerns, he said.
Customer dissatisfaction with train services was mainly due to the shortage of train tickets for the Lunar New Year, he said. “There are no short-term solutions to this problem. We need to build more rail lines.”
The ministry expects the number of train passengers during the spring break this year to rise 9.5 per cent to 210 million.
The internet offers many stories about the difficulties of getting tickets during this time. In one online posting, a man trying to buy a train ticket from Guangzhou to Harbin described queues at stations that were 50 metres long. He said he bought a ticket on the black market for 650 yuan in the end, 250 yuan above the regular price.
The Ministry of Railways needed to acquire land on which to build railways, but the country’s land regulations were not clearly defined, Weng said. “We need political support to build railways.”
The director of Asian equity research at Daiwa Securities, Geoffrey Cheng, said China lacked proprietary technology for the development of high-speed trains, having to import most of its know-how from foreign partners.
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